"^ 



Wj 



I LIBRARY OF CONGRIiSS. i 

$ -^ "^^ J 

I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. #! 



V i«.. ya»v ^ja^ >«) ' 



TKUE CAUSE 



ALL CONTENTION, STRIFE, 



CIVIL WAE 

IN CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES. 



A BOOK FOR ALL CHRISTIAN TEACHERS AND CHRISTIAN PROFESSORS OF ALL 

SECTS, NAMES AND CONDITIONS J AND FOR ALL PERSONS WHO 

DESIRE TO DO THEIR OWN TEHNKING. 



BY 

REV. D. c/hOPKINS, A. M. 



NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD, 50G BROADWAY, 

OPPOSITE THE ST. NICHOLAS HOTEL. 

1862. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, 

BY D. C. HOPKINS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 



EDWARD 0. JENKINS, 

printer & .Stereot^pcr, 
No. 20 North AVilliam St. 



CONTENTS. 



»♦• 



I. 

PAGE 

ANTHROPOLOGY: or, THE IMAGE OF GOD IIST WHICH MAN 

WAS CREATED.— Inteoduction 1 



II. 

TRINITY OF PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD. INCARNATION 

OF DEITY '73 



in. 

THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH.— Introduction 131 

Chapter I. — Sin — How Originated — Its Nature 133 

Chapter II. — The Law of Sin and Death Defined 140 

Chapter III. — The Influence of Habit — How Contracted 145 



Chapter IY. — Original Sin, etc., the True Source of Error 147 

(3) 



4 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter V. — The Law of Sin Located in the Flesh — Relation of 

Adam's Sin to the Character of his Posterity 155 



Chapter VI. — The Necessity of Distinguishing between the Moral 
and Physical Spheres 158 



Chapter VIL — The Difference between the Moral and Physi- 
cal — The Consequences of Confounding them 163 



Chapter VIIL — Limitation of the Law of Sin and Death 1'78 



Chapter IX. — Conclusion — A Summary of Results 180 



IV. 



THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS : or, 
THE TRUE THEORY OF MORAL RENOVATION.— Intro- 
duction 191 



Chapter I. — ^The Nature of the Change — ^What is Changed ? — In 

what does it Consist ? — Where is it Located ? 193 

Chapter II. — Necessity of this Change 200 

Chapter III. — The Authorship of the Change 205 



CONTENTS. 5 

PAGE 

Chapter IV. — The Instrument, Cause, or Influence that produces 

THE Change 222 



Chapter V. — The Conversion of Nicodemus 247 



Chapter VI. — Summary of Results 259 



Conclusion 270 



INTRODUCTION. 



We often hear, even at this late period of the Christian era, 
and in this age of Christian revivals, reformations, and mis- 
sionary enterprise, the lamentation of the evangehc Prophet ; 
or inquiries quite equivalent. " Who hath believed our re- 
port ? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ? " Isa. 
liii. 1. If the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto sal- 
vation, why has not the world been saved, from the dominion 
of sin and misery, ages ago ? If the law of the Lord be per- 
fect, converting the soul, why are there so many millions of 
unconverted sinners, in every part of the world ; and especially 
in this Christian land, where the Bible is placed in every 
house, or offered at the door of every habitation, and where 
provision is made for teaching every child to read and under- 
stand the same ? If God our Saviour has, by his word and 
Spirit, revealed to men for their salvation, his whole will, " in 
all things concerning their edification and salvation," why do 
ignorance of his will, transgression of the same, and the con- 
sequent sin and misery, constitute the general character and 
condition of the great mass of mankind, even in the most en- 
lightened and Christian nations of 'the earth ? Why, in every 
Christian city, community, and country, do the catalogues of 
crime, against the law of God, the law of nature, the laws of 
men, and the peace and happiness of human society, exceed, 
by many fold, the number of Christian conversions in the 
same communities ? Why does not the preaching of the gos- 
pel, which has become the exclusive profession, office, busi- 
ness, and livelihood, of a large and very important class of 
men, sustained at great expense, in all Christian nations, ex- 
hibit its legitimate influences, and produce its natural fruits ? 

(7) 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

On the day of Pentecost, about three thousand were con- 
verted, under the first gospel sermon ever preached. And 
from that day, for two or three centuries, tHe progress of 
Christianity through the world was onward and rapid. 
Wherever the gospel was preached, the immediate results 
proved it to be the power of God unto salvation. The powers 
of the world, both church and state, were arrayed against the 
new religion. The converts were exposed to persecution, 
exile, and death. But they that were scattered abroad went 
every where preaching the word ; and wherever the story 
of the cross was told, converts were multiplied, by scores, 
hundreds, and thousands daily. And Christian associations, 
or churches, were formed in pagan cities and heathen coun- 
tries; often before a commissioned teacher had set foot in 
that country or city. Such are the legitimate influences and 
natural fruits of preaching the gospel of Christ ; preordained 
and promised by God our Saviour, the divine Author of the 
gospel; foretold by his prophets from the beginning; wit- 
nessed and recorded by his inspired apostles, who received 
their commission and instructions from his own lips. Such 
are still its legitimate results, occasionally witnessed and ac- 
knowledged, by all Christians, to be the genuine effects of 
'' the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus," making sinners 
"free from the law of sin and death." And such are, and 
always must be, the results whenever the pure, unadulterated 
gospel of Christ is addressed to human agents, who have been 
told, and really know and believe, that they have sinned and 
are guilty. 

But somewhere about the third or fourth century of the 
Christian era, a very great change took place, in relation to 
the influence of the gospel on human society. From that 
time to the beginning of the sixteenth century, the progress 
of Christianity, in the world, was retrograde. In all that long 
period, the gospel of Christ seems to have lost its moral influ- 
ence for meliorating the condition of human society in general, 
or for saving the world from sin and misery. And even to 
the present day a vast proportion of the preaching of the gos- 
pel, so called, appears to be entirely destitute of any moral or 



INTRODUCTIOX. 



saving influence. Though to every generation have been given 
glorious and convicting ilhistrations of the power of the gos- 
pel to save souls, families and nations too, from the bondage 
of corruption, sin, and misery, yet these illustrations have 
been very limited, and generally of short duration. Even 
the great reformation of the sixteenth century was scarcely 
an exception. And whether the present revived missionary 
enterprise, and multiplied facilities and machinery for spread- 
ing the gospel through the world, will result in any very con- 
siderable improvement of the general character and condition 
of the human race, is rendered extremely uncertain, by the 
present divided and conflicting state of the Church and its 
theological creeds. Whatever number and variety of influ- 
ences may be supposed to have concurred in preventing the 
promised and legitimate fruits of a preached gospel; when 
" All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the 
Lord : and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before 
him :" Ps. xxii. 27, still one thing is certain and obvious, viz: 
that some primary, efficient, adequate, and widely difiused 
cause has, for ages, and does still, prevent the evangelizing 
of the world, and defeat the desired, the predicted and di- 
vinely appointed end of sending the gospel into the world. 

What is this cause ? 

It is not of God, in any sense whatever. Resolving it into 
the divine sovereignty, or purpose, or providence, or permis- 
sion of God, is not, therefore, a satisfactory solution of the 
difficulty. God's sovereign will and pleasure, in the premises, 
is that all men " should be saved, and come to the knowledge 
of the truth." The will of God, which Christ, the divine Me- 
diator, reveals to men for their salvation, is a perfect remedial 
provision of law, " converting the soul." It has never yet 
failed of converting and saving the soul with which it was 
brought into contact. " The gospel of Christ is the power 
of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth." '' It is 
able to save your souls." Embodied in human language as 
in the Bible, it is an essential constituent of that divine per- 
sonality, the Holy Ghost, whose peculiar office and work it is 
to regenerate and to perfect the entire work of moral renova 

1* 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

tion, in which the salvation of the sinner consists. This cause 
of faihire can not, therefore, be found with God, the Author 
of the gospel, nor in the nature of the gospel. Nor can it be 
found in the nature of man, the subject of the desired and 
promised change. Human nature, the nature of man, as a 
subject of divine government, — that nature which constitutes 
him an accountable being, a subject of moral change and of 
moral retribution, — is the same now as on the day of Pentecost, 
w^hen the gospel produced its legitimate fruits, and converts 
were multiplied by thousands daily. It is the same living 
soul it Avas in Adam the day that God breathed into his nos- 
trils the breath of life, and man became a living soul ; with 
the same moral endowments, abilities, or susceptibilities, 
which constituted Adam's human nature. Human nature is 
the same in all men to-day that it was in Jesus of N'azareth, 
while God manifested himself in his flesh as the divine Medi- 
ator and Redeemer, in the second person of the Godhead. 
" God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for 
sin condemned sin in the flesh." Rom. viii. 3. " For verily 
he took not on him the nature of angels ; but he took on him 
the seed of Abraham." Heb. ii. 16. He took on him the very 
nature of those for whom he gave himself a ransom, with all 
the infirmities and innocent liabilities contracted by four thou- 
sand years' bondage under the law of sin and death. But he 
committed no sin. " Himself took our infirmities, and bore 
our sicknesses." Matt. viii. 17. "But was in all points 
tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Heb. iv. 15. And 
human nature, consisting as it does exclusively in that image 
and likeness of God in which man was originally created, 
must for ever remain the same, as unchangeable, and as essen- 
tial to the existence of man, while he does exist, as the same 
endowments are to the being of God, while he exists. 

But this primary, fundamental, and Bible fact, respecting 
human nature, is denied, contradicted, controverted, and de- 
nounced as damnable heresy. And in the denials and inex- 
plicable dogmas with which this plain historic fact is contro- 
verted, the original and only adequate cause of the great 
failure of the gospel begins to be developed. The general 



IXTI10DUCTI0X. 11 

substitute lov this gospel truth is desiguated as the doctrine 
of original sin. r>ut the forms of language in which it is ex- 
pressed are as vaiious and as discordant as the sects who claim 
to be the only orthodox professors of Christianity. One sect 
or school will tell you that Adam, the first sinner, histead of 
begetting " a son in his own likeness, after his image," as God 
commanded him to do, and as the Bible affirms that he did, 
transmitted, by natural generation, the whole sin and guilt of 
his eating the forbidden fruit, to each of his posterity. In 
consequence, they are all born with sinful, guilty natures, 
under condemnation to eternal punishment. (See Westminster 
Con. and Cat.) One learned and pious expositor of the Bible 
tells us that this sinful nature, which he calls " a form of 
death," and ''of all evils the essence and sum," is by God 
inflicted on each individual of the race, in the first moment of 
his existence, as the righteous judicial penalty for Adam's eat- 
ing the forbidden fruit. (See Hodge on Rom. v. 12-21.) An- 
other eminent professor and teacher of theology informs us 
that human nature is pure sin in the abstract, which each in- 
dividual of the race created or contracted for himself, by his 
own agency, in the garden of Eden, at the time Adam ate the 
forbidden fruit, long before his own existence commenced. 
(Shedd's Essay.) " Sin a nature, and that nature guilt." 
And still another celebrated doctor of divinity assures us that 
God, by his immediate agency, creates every sinful emotion, 
volition, or exercise of the human soul. Therefore all the sin 
that exists is agreeable to the eternal purpose and will of God, 
and can never exceed what he sees to be best on the whole, 
(all things considered,) and necessary for the glory of God, 
and greatest happiness of the universe. (See Emmons' Works.) 
By these, and a whole category of similar inexplicable dog- 
mas, absurdities, and contradictions, this God-revealed fact, 
and ultimate antecedent of all knowledge relating to human 
nature, is wrapped up in profound obscurity, darkness, and 
mysticism; and totally divested of all motive influence for 
any moral change or improvement. And every other im- 
portant or essential doctrine of the Bible is wrapped up in a 
similar shroud of mysticism. So that the greater part of 



12 INTKODUCTION. 

what is called preachini^ the gospel, or teaching Christianity, 
at the present day, and for ages past, has been merely wrap- 
ping up the sw^ord of the Spirit in impenetrable folds of mys- 
ticism and obscurity ; thus divesting the word of God, the 
gospel of Christ, of all motive influence and saving poAver ; 
or shielding the hearers against all such influences. And to 
cap the climax of solecism, absurdity, and contradiction, the 
teachers and defenders of these dogmas, w^hile they constantly 
affirm that they are profound and aw^ful mysteries, absolutely 
inexplicable by human agents, and entirely above, beyond, 
and out of the sphere of human intellect to know, understand, 
or comprehend, still at the same time affirm that they are re- 
vealed truth ; fundamental and essential doctrines of the gos- 
pel of Christ ; that God himself has revealed them to men for 
their salvation ; and that men are therefore under the strong- 
est obligations to believe them, on pain of eternal punishment. 

Now, if a greater absurdity, or a plainer or a more obvious 
contradiction than this w^as ever constructed in human lan- 
guage, I have not seen or heard of it. Every person, who 
knows any thing, know^s that to reveal is to make known, to 
discover, to make manifest, so that those to whom the revela- 
tion is made may, if willing to bestow the necessary thought 
and attention, know, understand, and comprehend, intellect- 
ually and clearly, so as practically to believe, w^hatever is re- 
vealed. But what is above and beyond the capacity of human 
intellect to know or comprehend, is not, and can not be, re- 
vealed to man, not even hy infinite wisdom^ power ^ and goodness. 

Here, then, w^e have the true reason why the world has not 
been evangelized ages ago, and an adequate cause of all the 
failures of the gospel to produce its legitimate fruits, and the 
true, because the moral and primary cause, of all the contro- 
versies, conflicts, and civil w^ars which have distracted and 
rent the Church into factions, and desolated vast provinces of 
Christendom, for fifteen centuries past ; and which still oper- 
ates powerfully and extensively, retarding the work of evan- 
gelization, and multiplying divisions, conflicts, crime and 
misery, instead of producing " Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace, good will to men." 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

Now, the design of this little book is, if possible, to divest 
the gospel of Christ of some of these inexplicable dogmas of 
mysticism ; or to show, for the benefit of persons of only 
common sense and common education, that the system of 
truth, which God has revealed to men for their salvation, is 
not, as we are constantly told, a system of profound and inex- 
plicable mystery, but of plain common sense truth, perfectly 
Avithin the comprehension of every sinner of the race. I hope 
to show to the satisfaction of every candid reader, whose 
mind or opinions are not wholly shaped by the conventional 
influences of creed, sect, or social relations, that every doc- 
trine, truth, or fact, that goes to constitute the entire gospel 
of Christ, with a single exception, is intuitively and neces- 
sarily made known to every sinner ; so that he can not be 
ignorant of it, but by voluntarily, (that is,) wilfully excluding 
the light of truth from his intellectual and moral susceptibili- 
ties. The single exception is the fact that God has given his 
only begotten Son to be the propitiation for the sins of the 
whole world. Jno. iii. 16. 

The four essays comprised in this volume are a part of a 
more extended work, prepared for the press several years 
since, but never published, (except the essay on the Law of 
Sin and Death.) These four topics are selected, because they 
are fundamental and essential doctrines of the gospel. The 
first, as necessarily antecedent to any knowledge or concep- 
tion of moral government over human animals. The second, 
as presenting the only Author, or adequate cause, or qualified 
Sovereign, of a perfect moral government. The third, as 
naturally incidental to a government over free agents. The 
fourth, as the only result, perfectly explaining and harmoniz- 
ing the relations of the preceding. And also because a cor- 
rect presentation of Bible truth on these topics will furnish a 
key to divest the entire system of Christianity of every dogma 
of mysticism. 

But the special motive for publishing these essays at this 
time, is the fact that the unnatural, the savage, and extermi- 
nating war, which the slaveocracy of the South is now waging 
against the government of the United States, presents a per- 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

feet demonstration, and an extended illustration, to the civil- 
ized world, of the truth of the leading sentiment of this whole 
volume, viz : that no inexplicable dogma, or incomprehensible 
mystery is, or can be, a part of the gospel of Christ Avhich 
God revealed to men for their salvation. 

The following inexplicable dogma has been taught, pro- 
fessed, reiterated and defended, for ages, in this land and 
throughout Christendom, as a fundamental and essential doc- 
trine of Christian theology, viz : That God, in his eternal pur- 
pose, according to the counsel of his will, for his own glory, 
hath, by an unchangeable decree, foreordained whatever 
comes to pass. And all who teach or profess this dogma as 
gospel truth, declare that it is a profound mystery of godli- 
ness, utterly beyond and above the ability of human intellect 
to explain, understand, or comprehend. Says the slaveocrat, 
whatever tliis holy God of infinite wisdom, power, and good- 
ness, chooses and unchangeably foreordains, must necessarily 
and continually exist, and must be a righteous, just, and be- 
neficent divine institution. Our domestic institution of chattel 
slavery has been, for ages, among the comings to pass ; and 
must therefore be a divine mstitution, right, just, and benefi- 
cent: an inalienable, Godgiven right of every slave-owner. 
This inference of the slaveocrat is perfectly logical and incon- 
trovertible ; and if the dogma of universal predestination be 
Bible truth, it is as evangelical as it is logical. But this 
dogma is not truth at all, but a falsehood, an absurdity, in- 
volving a positive contradiction, and a blasphemous slander 
of God, the moral Sovereign of the universe. For God, in 
the perfect exercise of his infinite wisdom, power, and good- 
ness, has in every precept, every utterance and expression of 
his revealed will contained in the Bible, positively and pe- 
remptorily forbidden the commission of sin, in every relation 
that exists among the subjects of his moral government on 
earth. And in all the events of his gracious administration, 
wherever it is possible for him to indicate his purpose, will, or 
desire, in this behalf, to human intellect, he has manifested his 
infinite antagonism to all sin, and all its consequent misery. 
And common sense, as well as the Bible, teaches every moral 



INTRODUCTIOX. 16 

agent that perfect antagonism is the only relation that an in- 
finitely wise and good moral Sovereign can sustain to sin and 
misery. Therefore the dogma which affirms or implies that 
God purposed, willed, foreordained, permits, or consents to 
the commission of sin, is a complete parallel, in moral charac- 
ter, magnitude, and tendency, to the affirmation of the old 
serpent to Eve, '' Ye shall not surely die." Does the God of 
truth and grace use false j^retenses ? " God is light, and in 
him is no darkness at all." 

Now the spirit, temper, means, manner, and avowed pur- 
pose of the South, in waging this war of slavery against civil 
and religious liberty, clearly exhibit and illustrate perfectly 
the moral influence of such incomprehensible mysticism, when 
constituting a part of the religious creed of sinful men. As 
their pretended divine institution and special rights are 
founded on falsehood, the only appropriate means, method, 
and aim in defending and propagating them, are lying, treach- 
ery, fraud, perjury, theft, assassination, murder, and utter ex- 
termination of every thing that obstructs their course, or even 
doubts the sustaining dogma. The most brutal and fiendish 
passions are the only moving inspiration of such warfares ; 
and the most demoralizing and destructive results to the 
authors and their agents can alone be anticipated. Such have 
been the nature and consequences of all the conflicts, contro- 
versies, and wars that have been waged to sustain or defend 
inexplicable religious dogmas, or rights founded on tliem or 
defended by them, ever since they began to be mingled with 
Christian theology. And such must be the results, for aught 
we can conceive, till the pure light of truth shines again from 
the golden candlesticks. Such, from the beginning of the 
world, have been the results of receiving inexplicable mystic- 
isms for religious truth. 

Let any reader carefully examine the history of the Church, 
from the fourth century to the present time, comparing it 
with the civil history of the nations, states, and communities 
w^hich have constituted what has been called Christendom, or 
the Christian world, in distinction from the pagan, and these 
general facts will be seen standing out prominent in every age 



16 IXTRODUCTIOX. 

and country of Christendom during that period : 1 st. That 
the greatest part of the civil wars that have distracted, im- 
poverished, depopulated, and ultimately extinguished those 
states or nations, were waged to support or propagate some 
unmeaning, inexplicable, and incomprehensible theological ro- 
mance ; or to establish and defend some special right, preroga- 
tive or temporal interest, distinction or dignity ; supposed to 
be derived to the claimants from, or supported by these 
theological romances. 

2. In conducting such civil wars, the same means, the same 
manner, and the same malignant spirit, have been generally 
exhibited, which the South have thus far exhibited in the pre- 
sent war. Especially have lying, perjury, fraud, treachery, 
secret assassination and murder, been the common means, 
methods, and influences in creating and conducting such wars ; 
and such means and influences have been so long used and 
justified, by professors and teachers of Christianity, that for 
ages it has been an established principle, or law of moral 
action and practical piety among the most numerous Christian 
sect on earth ; that no faith is to be kept with heretics, and 
that to convert or destroy a heretic by such means, is the 
most meritorious service, the faithful can render to God or his 
church. 

3. The only and invariable influences and results of all such 
conflicts, as they are seen cropping out, in all subsequent 
history, are invariably demoralizing, unchristianizing, un- 
civilizing, dementating, depopulating, impoverishing and 
destructive. The present condition of Western Asia, and 
Northern Africa, compared with the same at the close of the 
fourth century, furnish a full and perfect illustration of this 
truth ; if not, just look at the state and condition of society in 
the seceding states. 

The civil war, in which this whole country is involved, is 
of this peculiar nature. A special right, prerogative, or ex- 
clusive privilege is claimed, as derived to the claimants from 
a theological romance ; viz : The dogma of universal predes- 
tination. And the right of propagating and entailing the 
divine institution to all generations, is sustained by the other 



INTRODUCTION. 1 7 

kindred dogmas, or romances, called original sin, or sin and 
guilt transmitted through a thousand generations and attached 
to the person, antecedent to all knowledge, volition or action 
of the subject. Chattel slavery, the divine hereditary right 
of converting human beings into brute animals, mere things 
totally divested of personality, or personal rights, is the only 
right claimed or controverted in this conflict. This is the only 
question to be resolved ; the only interest to be secured by 
this infatuated rebellion. And the solution must depend on 
the truth or falsehood of these theological dogmas. If they 
are divine truth, slavery is a divine institution, and will 
exist while truth and men exist in this world. If they are 
fiction, romance and falsehood, slavery must be annihi- 
lated before the world is evangelized, or this country en- 
joys peace with civil and political freedom. I believe that 
these, and their cognate inexplicable dogmas of theological 
romance, are the sole, the moral, the true cause, and the pri- 
mary antecedents of all the hereditary sovereignty, royalty, 
nobility and aristocracy, and all the special divine rights, 
honors, prerogatives and dignities, which men now claim, 
or have done for ages either in church or state. I know of no 
specialties in the administration of grace to sinful men. The 
free gift of complete salvation from sin and all its consequent 
miseries, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, is a 
gift to the whole world without exception, and is proffered 
alike to every sinner of the human race, on the same condition 
of believing in him. "Look unto me and be ye saved all the 
ends of the earth." " For he is the propitiation for our sins : 
and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole 
world." And I hope to show that there are no inexplicable 
dogmas, or incomprehensible mysteries in the gospel of Christ 
or the religion taught in the Bible. But as long as these 
theological fictions are everywhere taught as fundamental 
doctrines of Christianity, we must expect to see Christendom 
continue to rival heathendom in fiendlike strife and human 
bloodshed. 

In the discussion of these topics I have endeavored to state 
the plain simple truth on each topic, just as taught in the 



18 IXTRODUCTIOX. 

Bible, but divested as far as possible of inexplicable dogma- 
tisms, and incomprehensible mysteries, and expressed in such 
plain language that every person of common sense and com- 
mon education may, if willing to bestow the necessary thought 
and attention, understand, comprehend, and practically be- 
lieve the whole truth of the gospel. But let every reader be 
apprised and remember that such is the peculiar nature, the 
exalted relations and infinite importance of these topics, that 
without special attention, deep interest, and intense, continu- 
ous thought, no human intellect can understand or believe 
practically any truth relating to these subjects. 

Every attentive reader will readily perceive that these 
essays Avere composed before the present rebellion and civil 
war commenced, or was apprehended as probable in the 
present generation ; and that the writer could, therefore, 
have had no reference to any pohtical question, relation, or 
controversy. And it must be equally obvious that he could 
have had no special allusion to any particular sect, division, 
QY denomination of the Christian Church ; for he knows of no 
sect or denomination, who call themselves Christian, that do 
not profess to believe, propagate and defend, some more or 
less, theological or metaphysical fictions, as revealed and es- 
sential doctrines of the Christian system. The principal object 
in discussing these topics has been to solve the inquiry, " Why 
has not the world been evangelized ages ago ? " And having 
arrived at a satisfactory solution in the fact that the gospel of 
Christ, the system of revealed religion taught in the Bible, 
has been corrupted, vitiated, and thus divested of its legiti- 
mate and true motive influence, by the addition of numerous 
inexplicable and incomprehensible dogmas of mysticisms; 
mere fictions of depraved human intellect ; the only remain- 
ing desire was to aid in some degree the removal of these 
corrupting redundancies. 

Perhaps some persons may not readily apprehend the 
causal relation between assenting to theological fictions as 
religious truths, and civil war in Christian communities. It 
may, therefore, not be amiss to say something here respecting 
the medium and process of such causal influence. Every one 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

knows, who knows any thing at all about human animals, 
that God has endowed them, in common with all other ani- 
mal organizations, with a perfect array of all the instincts, 
appetites, and passions necessary for their well being, and 
adapted to their particular sphere of animal existence. Among 
these, the most essential and most influential on the condition 
of the human animal in this life, are self-love and acquisitive- 
ness, or, in Scripture language, pride, which is represented as 
the condemnation- of the devil, and the love of money, which 
is the root of all evil. These are the crying sins of all civil- 
ized and Christian communities, and are regarded as the cause 
of most of the crime and misery of the world. But these ani- 
mal endowments are in themselves perfectly innocent and 
absolutely necessary to the existence and propagation of hu- 
man animals on the earth. The first is the prescribed measure 
of my love to my neighbor ; and, therefore, as right and as 
innocent as loving my neighbor according to the law of God. 
The other is the first and indispensable duty of every moral 
agent that walks on this footstool, enforced by the penalty of 
starvation if neglected. Their exercise or indulgence becomes 
sinful only when intemperate, and it becomes transgression 
of the law of God. 

But through the motive influence of the physical depravity 
of the animal organization, and of the social surroundings and 
examples of human society, and (I am sorry to say) through 
the motive influence of parental cultivation and instruction, 
these animal passions become controlling and governing influ- 
ences of the entire human being, antecedent to the develop- 
ment of any moral susceptibilities of the living soul, or any 
capacity of giving moral character to his actions ; so that the 
intemperate indulgence of these animal passions becomes the 
object of his strongest afiections, and the principal source of 
his pleasures. And continuing thus when his moral suscepti- 
bilities are developed, this intemperate and unlawful indul- 
gence becomes his supreme object of pursuit; his idol, his 
God, his sin and destruction. Through this medium, and in 
this method, the physical depravity consequent of Adam's 
fall, and descending from him by natural generation to all his 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

posterity, presents motive influence to the living soul, to in- 
duce or tempt it to commit sin, and thus create moral evil, 
moral depravity or sin. 

Every human agent of common sense who has read the 
Bible and thought on the subject, knows intuitively, and by 
the reiterated testimony of the Bible, that God has endowed 
the living soul, which he added to the human animal when 
he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, with a perfect 
array of moral faculties, susceptibilities or powers, necessary 
and perfectly adapted to the well being of his immortal na- 
ture, and to the high sphere of glory and felicity for which he 
was created. Among these moral endowments is the ability 
of perceiving, appreciating, loving, admiring, enjoying, and 
adoring moral beauty, virtue, goodness, and thus partici- 
pating in perfect happiness, felicity or bliss. These religious 
susceptibilities are among the strongest passions of the living 
soul, because they are the most essential to his well being and 
perfect felicity. In the right use and exercise of these endow- 
ments alone does the soul live and enjoy that eternal life 
which is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Now, this living soul, with its moral and intellectual en- 
dowments, constitutes man's entire human nature, his entire 
manhood, his entire subjectibility to moral government, to 
obligation, to reward and punishment, in contradistinction 
from his animal nature and physical being. Every thing that 
pertains to the creature man, besides the living soul and its 
essential endowments, is mere animal and physical machinery, 
created for the temporal use and accommodation of the soul 
during its probation in this world. The moral endowments 
or susceptibilities of this living soul are that image and like- 
ness of God in which man was originally created, and which 
constitute him a subject of moral government, and render him 
capable of obligation, reward and punishment. These moral 
susceptibilities of the living soul are the only thing in the 
creature man, as he came from the hand of the Creator, in 
which any image, likeness, similarity, or resemblance of the 
invisible God can be shown to or perceived by human intel- 
lect. God is capable of perceiving, appreciating, and dehght- 



IXTRODUCTIOX. 21 

ing in the beauty, excellence, and utility of moral rectitude, 
virtue, holiness, and truth. Man also is capable of perceiving, 
appreciating, and delighting in the same beauty of holiness. 
In these endowments the living human soul presents a perfect 
image of God, as like to God as God is like to himself, with 
the single exception that in God they are infinite, in man they 
are finite. 

There are two kinds of influence in the universe by which 
these moral susceptibilities of the living soul may be put in 
motion, or excited to action. One is the motive influence of 
truth. The other the motive influence of falsehood. The 
first is the influence which God uses to work in saints both to 
will and to do of his good pleasure. And it is the only influ- 
ence which God ever uses to produce right action in any 
human agent, or to produce any moral change for the better 
in any sinning subject of his government over this world. 
The second is the only influence which the devil and wicked 
men ever use, or can use, to work in sinners to will and do 
evil, or commit sin. It is the only influence that ever did or 
can influence men to commit sin. By this influence alone the 
one man, and he the first man, was tempted to commit sin, 
and thus sin entered into the world. And sin has never been 
committed since, or existed in the moral character of any 
human agent, but as the author of it has been excited by the 
motive influence of falsehood to transgress law. " And the 
serpent said unto the woman. Ye shall not surely die." But 
of God it is written, " Of his own will begat he us with the 
word of truth, which is able to save your souls." " Sanctify 
them through thy truth ; thy word is truth." No intelligent 
human agent ever acts without motive. When the motive 
influence of truth is obeyed, the action is right, good, or 
holy. When the motive influence of falsehood is obeyed, the 
action is wrong, bad, or sinful. The agent gives moral char- 
acter to his action by choosing which to obey. When, there- 
fore, the moral susceptibilities of the living soul begin to be 
developed, so that the agent is capable of giving character to 
his actions, if then fiction, romance, mysticism, error, or false- 
hoods in any form be assented to as religious truths, or 



22 TXTRODUCTIOX. 

adopted as essential and fundamental parts of the gospel, all 
the religious emotions, affections, passions, and volitions of 
the living soul, are put under the motive influence of false- 
hood. The agent is deceived, or tempted, or enticed by his 
own animal lusts, viewed in the mirror of falsehood, to com- 
mit sin, and thus put himself voluntarily under the law of sin 
and death. The pious m^other, the religious teacher, and the 
learned, the holy, ordained ambassador of Christ, iterates and 
reiterates from the pulpit the inexplicable dogmas of mystic- 
ism, affirming them to be cardinal doctrines of the Bible, and 
essential truths of the gospel of salvation, and the undeveloped 
moral agent assents to them as such, often before his moral 
endowments are sufficiently developed to distinguish between 
right and wrong, sin and holiness. Thus the habit of assent- 
ing to theological fictions has become a second nature, and is 
practiced without thought or reflection. Their truth and cer- 
tainty are taken for granted, just as his own existence, or the 
existence of matter, is ; such, for example, as the dogmas of 
original sin, universal predestination, imputation or transfer 
of moral character from one agent to another, God existing in 
three persons, eternal generation, eternal sonship, and such 
like. As all such dogmas, being inexplicable and incompre- 
hensible by human intellect, are necessarily undefinable in 
human language, and will therefore readily, and with very 
little mental effort, take any form in the depraved and per- 
verted human imagination, (where they were generated,) or 
assume any relation, and adapt themselves to any association, 
interest, or habit, which the depraved animal appetites and 
passions may have adopted a^ their supreme idol, thus every 
inexplicable or incomprehensible religious dogma, romance, or 
mysticism thus received as gospel truth, furnishes a very con- 
venient and most powerful array of motive influences to con- 
firm, sustain, strengthen and justify a transgressor in the 
grossest, most destructive and damning sins which the devil 
or sensual lust can conceive. Because the only influence of 
falsehood, received or adopted, or assented to as religious 
truth, must necessarily be to unite the entire moral force of 
all the religious susceptibilities of the living soul with the 



IXTRODUCTIOX. 23 

depraved and perverted instincts, appetites, and passions of the 
flesh in the production of sin and misery. Thus the whole agent, 
with all his endowments, both physical and moral, animal and 
spiritual, is religiously, devoutly, and piously engaged in doing 
evil and producing misery, imder the delusion of falsehood that 
he is doing good, serving God and his country. 

Now for an illustration. Says the advocate of slavery, 
" God hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass." What 
God ordains is right, good, just, and beneficent. Chattel 
slavery has always been found among the comings-to-pass. 
It is, therefore, a divine ordinance ; a good, Avise, just, and 
beneficent institution. God imputes the guilt of eating the 
forbidden fruit to all the posterity of Adam, and the guilt of 
Ham to Canaan and his posterity, thus constituting a new 
and different race of human beings, adapted only to a state 
of slavery. '' Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall 
he be unto his brethren." And thus entailing slavery on all 
his posterity, to the end of time. 

But Mormon polygamy, Mohammedan unitarianism, and 
Nicene trinitarianism are, and have been among the comings- 
to-pass, and the causes of endless contention, strife, w^ar, and 
misery. The dogma of '' One God existing in three persons ; 
universal predestination ; original sin ; and imputation or 
transfer of moral character, guilt, and merit;" with their 
concomitant mysticisms and falsehoods, have, by their mo- 
tive influences, produced more contention, w^ar, bloodshed, 
and misery in Christendom, since the third century, than all 
other causes. Whether slavery, or some other physical or 
sensual interest, may have been the proximate cause or not, 
nothing but the motive influence of falsehood, received and 
assented to as religious truth, could ever bring all the religious 
and moral susceptibilities of the living soul, with all the intel- 
lectual and physical forces of a rational being, to unite in such 
fiend-like strife as now distracts this Christian nation. Such 
is the causal relation between assenting to falsehood and civil 
w^ar. ISTothing can result from the motive influence of false- 
hood, according to the law of nature and of nature's God, but 
sin and misery. 



ANTHROPOLOGY : 



OR, 



THE IMAGE OF GOD IN WHICH MAN WAS CREATED. 



" So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he 
him ; male and female created he them." — Gen. i. 27. 

This history of the creation was written some five and 
twenty centuries after the events had transpired. It is here 
recorded by Moses as an introduction to the Bible. The 
Bible is acknowledged by Christians in general, and by all 
Protestants in particular, to be a revelation of the will of God 
to men, as a rule of faith and practice in all their moral rela- 
tions during their probation in the flesh. It was therefore 
proper to contract this account of the creation of the material 
world, or the physical system of the earth, into the shortest 
compass consistent with this design, and to include in it only 
those facts which are necessary in order to understand the 
nature, the relations, the obligations, duties and destinies of 
men as subjects of moral government. 

The first fact afiirmed in this account of creation is, that 
God is the Author, the Creator, the original and proximate 
cause of the existence of the material world. " In the begin- 
ning God created the heaven and the earth." The next fact 
to be noticed is, that the whole process of the organization of 
the physical system of the world consisted in loco-motion of 
the ultimate atoms of which its various substances are com- 
posed. " And God said. Let there be light." " And God 
divided the light from the darkness." " And God said, Let 
the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that 
2 (25) 



26 ANTIIROrOLOGY : OE, THE IMAGE 

hath life." " And God said, Let the earth bring forth the 
living creature after his kind — and it was so." Another im- 
portant fact worthy to be noticed in this place is, that God, 
by his own immediate and direct agency, created man, both 
soul and body, and gave him all his natural endowments, sus- 
ceptibilitie-s, faculties, or powers. "And God said. Let us 
make man." " So God created man." '' And the Lord God 
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a hving soul." 
Gen. ii. 7. 

Two additional facts are affirmed in the text ; first, that 
God created man in his own image ; second, that God en- 
dowed man w^ith the capacity of multiplying and perpetuating 
his own nature. " So God created man in his own image, 
in the image of God created he him ; male and female created 
he them." 

As these two facts are cotemporaneous, first in the order 
of nature, first in the order of time, first in the book of reve- 
lation, first in the intuitive perception of human intellect, and 
inclusive of all that God has ever revealed to us concerning 
man's substantive being, it is obvious that all our anthro- 
pology, or correct knowledge of human nature, that is, our 
real knowledge of ourselves, our relations, our obligations, 
duties and destinies, must grow out of these facts, as first 
principles, and must be connected with, depend upon, or re- 
result from these facts, as the tree depends upon and grows 
out of its root or germ. It is, therefore, of the utmost im- 
portance that we should attain clear and correct conceptions 
of these primary facts. A mistake with respect to such fun- 
damental truths may involve our whole scheme of anthro- 
pology in error, mysticism, and absurdity. This image of 
God in which man Avas created must include the highest, 
most perfect, and useful or valuable endowments of human 
animals. It must also constitute the nearest, the highest, and 
most important relations betAveen God and men. For what 
can be higher, more important and valuable, than that which 
is so like God as to constitute his very image ? Or what in 
man can be nearer to God, or higher and more important 



OF GOD I^S^ AVIIICII MAN WAS CREATED. 27 

in relationship, than to bear the image of the infinite 
God? 

But all the knowledge we may acquire, or that God may 
condescend to bestow upon us, concerning himself, his attri- 
butes, his will, his government, law and administration, dur- 
ing our probation in the flesh, must be perceived by us, or 
acquired, conceived, inferred or received, in the exercise or 
by the use of those endowments which God conferred on man 
in this original act of creation, and which go to constitute 
this image of God. For example, if God bestows on us the 
knowledge that he is the moral Governor of the world, our 
conception of that truth must necessarily consist of our intui- 
tive consciousness of the obligation of obedience, resulting 
from the relation of creatures, which we sustain to God the 
Creator, extended in thought to the whole race, and ab- 
stracted from all limitation and imperfection. And we pos- 
sess the knowledge of that fundamental truth in theology, in, 
by, and through the exercise or action of that moral endow- 
ment or susceptibility which God gave us and made essential 
to our nature, in the act of creation mentioned in the text 
whereby we became a living soul. It must, therefore, be 
obvious that a mistake in relation to this image of God in 
which man was created may involve our Avhole system of 
theology in error, contradiction, and absurdity. If we con- 
ceive, affirm and believe, that this image of God consisted in 
something in which it did not consist, we of course conceive 
a fiction, we affirm a falsehood, we believe a lie. Our the- 
ology, our professed knowledge of God, is mingled with 
falsehood and mysticism. 

It becomes us, therefore, to approach this subject divested 
of all conventional, sectarian, and secular influences ; moved 
only by the love of God and benevolence for lost men. And 
may that light of truth which constitutes the infinite wisdom 
and moral omnipotence of God direct us in all our investi- 
gations. 

The text j^resents two subjects of inquiry to be solved. 
I. What constitutes this imaofe and likeness of God in which 

o 

man was created ? 



28 ANTimOPOLOGY : OR, THE IMAGE 

II. What are we taught by the phrase, '' Male and female cre- 
ated he them?" 

I. This image and hkeness of God in which man w^as cre- 
ated must have consisted in something that would distinguish 
him from and raise him above all the other species of organic 
beings belonging to this material system. It must have been 
something that would qualify and render him fit and worthy 
to be invested with the possession of and dominion over all 
the earth, and all its contents. This is the declared design of 
the divine counsel in giving man this image and likeness of 
his Maker. " Let us make man in our image, and let them 
have dominion over the fish, the fowl, the cattle, and over all 
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth uj^on 
the earth." And as soon as man was created, God invested 
him with these high prerogatives and privileges. " And God 
blessed them, and God said unto them. Be fruitful and multi- 
j)ly, and replenish the earth and subdue it : and have dominion 
over the fish, the fowl, and over every living thing that moveth 
upon the earth." 'No other reason, motive or design is men- 
tioned, or can be conceived, for man's being endowed with 
this image while in the flesh, but to distinguish him from and 
qualify him to exercise dominion over the animal tribes of the 
earth. It must, therefore, have consisted in something of 
which no likeness can be found in any other species of animal 
organization. For if the likeness of it may be found in any 
animal organization, it could not be an image of God, for God 
is a pure Spirit. The supposition would degrade the Deity 
to the likeness of a brute animal. But the ScrijDture saith, 
" Thou madest him a little lower than the angels ; thou 
crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over 
the works of thy hands." Heb. ii. 7. 

2d. The image of God, in which man Avas created, must 
have consisted in something essential, both to the divine and 
human nature. Something without which, God neither could 
nor would be God ; and something without which man neither 
could nor would be man. Because, Avhat soever is only inci- 
dental or contingent with God, can not constitute or amount 
to any image or likeness of God. And the same holds true in 



OF GOD IN WHICH MAN WAS CREATED. 29 

the case of man. For in that case God might exist for a time 
without the existence of his own image or likeness ; which is 
an absurdity. And man, also, in that case, may be truly and 
perfectly a man, though entirely destitute of his own hkeness 
or the image of God, Avhich involves a contradiction and a 
very gross absurdity. Besides, whatever was produced in 
man, by the creating act of God, must also be an essential 
constituent of his nature. Without it he must cease to be a 
man, cease to exist as a man, or cease to be at all. Hence the 
image of God, in which man was created, is an essential part 
or constituent of his nature. Without it he would not, can 
not be, and is not the creature of Avhom God said. Let us 
make man in our image. Therefore God affirms in his word 
that man, irrespective of his character, condition, and every 
thing incidental to him, '' Is the image and glory of God." 
1 Cor. xi. 7. And all human beings, who develop manhood 
in the flesh, whatever their character, condition, or circum- 
stances, whether believers or infidels. Christians or pagans, 
heathen idolaters or worshippers of the true God ; whether 
good or bad, sinful or holy, are in the Bible ; in all history, in 
the providence of God, and in the administration of his grace, 
perfectly identified, as the individuals whom God created on 
the sixth day. Therefore, every individual of the race when 
he commences actual existence, commences it in the image of 
God ; and as long as he exists he must sustain that image, for 
the moment he ceases to sustain that image, he ceases to be 
one of that race ; because that image of God is the distinctive 
trait of that species of animal called man. The child that is 
born to-day, and dies to-morrow, is born in the image of God, 
as truly as Adam was created in that image. If not, he must 
be a mere brute animal, not one of the human race. But he 
is not of any mere animal or inferior species of organic mat- 
ter. He is one of those identical individuals whom God cre- 
ated on the sixth day, whom he fitted to exercise dominion over 
all the earth, and every living thing that moveth upon the 
earth : and whom he blessed and said unto them. Be fruitful, and 
multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and of wliom he 
declared the kingdom of God consists. Luke xviii. 16. Hence, 



30 AXTIIROPOLOGY I OK, THE IMAGE 

3d. This image of God in which man was created, could 
not have consisted in any attribute, endowment, susceptibility 
or faculty belonging to his physical nature or his mere animal 
organization, nor in anything he possessed in common with 
brute animals or inorganic matter. Because the very design 
of this image and likeness of God, as expressed in the context, 
and clearly taught in other scriptures, was to distinguish man 
from, and raise him above the whole material system of this 
earth, and qualify him to exercise dominion over all the living, 
sensitive beings that move on the earth : and also to qualify 
him for the still more exalted and sublime employment, and 
ultimate end, of glorifying God and enjoying him for ever. 
" For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things : to 
whom be glory for ever. Amen." Rom. xi. 36. " Whether 
therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the 
glory of God." 1 Cor. x. 31. As this material world was 
created for the glory of God, and as man was created to rule 
over, to dispose of, and use it for his own benefit, so as thereby 
to glorify God and ultimately to enjoy him for ever : man was 
necessarily related to both God and the material world around 
him. It was proper, therefore, and necessary that his endow- 
ments should capacitate him to perform all the duties, and 
discharge all the obligations resulting from these relations. 
But his physical endowments, including all the susceptibihties 
and faculties which he possesses in common with brute ani- 
mals, or inorganic matter, do not capacitate him, or give him 
ability to perform, or even conoeive, feel, or understand any 
duty or obligation resulting from his higher relation to God. 
No mere animal, as far as we know, is capable of forming any 
conception of a God, or of moral obligation. And certainly 
there is no similitude, resemblance, or likeness between God, 
the infinite Spirit, and material substances, however perfectly 
and skilfully organized. Therefore the whole physical uni- 
verse, with all its material furniture, with all the animal en- 
dowments of man himself, are necessarily and totally excluded 
from constituting any part of this image and likeness of God 
in which man was created. 

4th. It did not consist in any thing pertaining to his mere 



OF GOD IX WHICH MAX WAS CREATED. 31 

intellectual endowments, or his susceptibilities of receiving 
knowledge, of understanding, of reasoning, and judging of 
material things ; nor did it consist of anything pertaining to 
the faculty of willing, or of originating locomotion or physical 
change. For all these endowments to man possesses in com- 
mon with the inferior species of animal organization, differing 
only in extent, according as the spheres of their action and 
well-being differ from each other. ''The ox knoweth his 
owner and the ass his master's crib : but Israel doth not 
know, my people doth not consider." Isa. i. 3. ''Yea, the stork 
in the heaven knoweth her appointed times ; and the turtle 
and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their 
coming : but my people know not the judgment of the Lord." 
Jer. viii. 7. These prophets ascribe to both birds and beasts 
intellectual emdowments, or susceptibilities of knowledge, of 
understanding, of judging, willing and doing, or of originating 
physical change. And the contrast which they make between 
the use of these endowments by the brutes and birds, and by 
God's professing people, is perfect proof that these endoAV- 
ments are of the same nature in man as in the brutes and 
birds. Otherwise the charge of blame which God makes 
against Israel, and which he sustains and illustrates by this 
contrast, are false and slanderous, and they can justify them- 
selves from blame against all such proof by pleading the dif- 
ference, if indeed there be any essential difference in these 
natural endowments, as they exist in men, and in other mferior 
animals. But this can not be, because " the judgments of the 
Lord are truth and righteous altogether." Ps. xix. 9. There- 
fore, nothing that pertains to any of these endowments dis- 
tinguishes man from other species of animals, or raises him 
above them in any respect whatever. 

As far as we are acquainted with the intellectual physiology 
of brute animals, they generally exhibit these capabilities, 
within their own proper sphere of action, where their well- 
being lies in a more perfect condition for right action, or in a 
superior degree to what man has ever exhibited in the flesh. 
But as these capabilities are all endowments of physical or- 
ganizations, that is, of mere animal substance, therefore, there 



32 ANTHROPOLOGY : OR, THE IMAGE 

must still be an infinite dissimilarity between them and God 
the infinite Spirit. As they exist in these animals they con- 
stitute no image or likeness of God ; neither can they as they 
exist in man. 

5th. The image of God, in which man w^as created, could 
not have consisted in mere knowledge of things material ; for 
if the endowments which rendered him capable of acquiring 
knowledge, did not constitute any image or likeness of God, 
as we have just shown, of course the knowledge acquired by 
the exercise or use of those endowments could not have con- 
stituted any such image or likeness. We can not expect the 
consequent will exceed the power of the antecedent, or exist 
preceding the antecedent. If the susceptibility of knowledge 
may be a mere physical endowment, as every person of com- 
mon sense knows it may be, and is and must be in relation to 
all the knoAvledge of mere brute animals, then the knowledge 
acquired through that susceptibility may be the acquisition of 
mere physical being. There may, indeed, be knowledge of a 
superior kind, which indicates the existence of a superi6r en- 
dowment, or a divine image and likeness of God. As all moral 
science in man proves that men possess some moral endowments 
or susceptibilities in common with God. But even this knowl- 
edge of moral subjects and distinctions can constitute no part 
of the image of God in which man w^as created ; for all the 
knowledge of finite created beings is necessarily finite also, 
and, therefore, must have had a beginning, and must have been 
acquired or received by the possessor, or the knowing agent. 
And every knowing agent on the earth knows intuitively that 
the very idea of knowledge necessarily involves the conception 
of a preexistent intelligent agent, who receives or acquires 
the knowledge, and in whom the knowledge exists. Man 
must therefore have existed without knowledge, but with a 
capacity of receiving or acquiring knowlege antecedent to his 
first perception, or first mental feeling, which constituted the 
beginning of his knowledge. But the image of God men- 
tioned in the text, in which man was created, was something 
produced or brought into existence by the original creative 
act of God, antecedent to all acquisitions of the creature. He 



OF GOD IN WHICH MAX WAS CKEATED. 33 

must, therefore, have existed without knowledge before the 
acquisition of knowledge commenced, or was possible. " God 
created man in his own image." The image was in the thing 
created ; but the receiver must exist before the reception can 
commence. The vessel must be finished before it can be filled. 
The image was in man, the vessel that receives the knowledge. 
Hence the supposition that the image of God, in which man 
was created, consisted in knowledge, involves a contradiction, 
an absurdity. It confounds and utterly destroys the distinc- 
tion of antecedent and consequent, that is, of cause and efiect, 
by making them cotemporaneous. It was physically impos- 
sible that Adam should have known any thing, even so much 
as the first perception or consciousness of his own existence 
at the time, or cotemporaneously with his creation. For all 
the knowledge of creatures is a consequence, or at least sub- 
sequent of their creation, or of their actual existence. Their 
creation, or actual existence, bears the relation of antecedent 
to the very first idea that constitutes knowledge in the mind. 
And the antecedent must necessarily precede the consequent. 
They can not be cotemporaneous in their beginning or cre- 
ation. 

We beheve in the omnipotence of God ; and that God can 
put himself in the relation of antecedent or cause to any 
change or event which does not involve a contradiction. But 
any supposed change which involves a contradiction or ab- 
surdity, is just as impossible for the omnipotent God as it is 
for the God of truth to lie. The Bible assures us that it is 
impossible for God to lie; Heb. vi. 18. But why can not 
God lie ? Because infinite goodness is an essential attribute 
of his nature, and an essential trait of his character ; and in- 
finite goodness necessarily includes unchangeable truth. To 
suppose or affirm that this God of unchangeable truth can lie, 
involves a flat contradiction, and, therefore, an impossibility. 
The antecedence and consequence of cause and efiect are a 
law of nature established by this same God of truth ; as un- 
changeable and universal as his own omnipresence. Every 
proposition, therefore, that makes the antecedent and con- 
sequent cotemporaneous, involves a contradiction, and is 
2* 



34 ANTiirtOroLOGY : or, the image 

therefore an absurdity, a falsehood. A plnjsical iinjyossibility 
even to OmniDoience. 

Again, it is also certain that knowledge can constitute no 
part of this image of God in which man was created, for that 
knowledge in the abstract has no substantive existence in 
itself. It can exist only as an accident, circumstance, relation 
or quality of some intelligent substantive agent. All human 
knowledge must, therefore, exist as an accident, circumstance, 
relation or quality of a human agent. But knowledge is not 
an essential quality of a human agent ; because men do exist 
without the knowledge of many things. And if man can exist 
without the knowledge of one thing, he may also exist with- 
out the knowledge of another, and of all things. And there 
is but one conceivable method in which it is possible, even for 
Almighty God, to communicate knowledge to a human intel- 
lect while in the flesh ; and that is, by bringing the subjects 
of knowledge to act upon the animal organs of sensation. 
The locomotions produced in these organs convey corres- 
ponding feelings or sensations to the mind, or the intellectual 
endowments or susceptibilities. These mental feelings or 
ideas, thus acquired, furnish the materials of all the knowledge 
of all men as long as they continue in the flesh. By combin- 
ing, abstracting, comparing, and inferring all the knowledge 
that men ever attain in this world, or that they ever could 
have attained in the flesh, had they never sinned, is commu- 
nicated to them or acquired by them in this method, and 
through this medium. Even all their knowledge of their 
own existence, and of their own intellectual and moral en- 
dowments, their knowledge of God, their knowledge of moral 
distinctions, of right and wrong, of sin and holiness, with all 
their intuitive conceptions and imaginary creations, must be 
acquired in this method. And all the knowledge which God 
has ever revealed to man, either by dreams, by visions, by 
oral language or articulate sounds, or by inward suggestion, 
must of absolute necessity have been communicated in this 
method and through this medium alone, because no other 
medium existed, or can exist, while man lives in the flesh. 

I may here be taunted with the declaration that all this is 



OF GOD IN WHICH MAX AVxVS CHEATED. 35 

vain pliilosophy, or "babblings and oppositions of science, 
falsely so called." But truth is truth, Avhether revealed by 
God or acquired by human intellect, prompted by the love of 
knowledge. If, however, I have been able to read the Bible 
correctly, after fifty years of continuous effort to do so, the 
history of Adam before the fall, and of the whole race since, 
as far as contained in that book, teaches as plainly as can be 
taught in human language, that all the knowledge God ever 
communicated to Adam, or to any of the race, was communi- 
cated in this method, and acquired through this medium. 
We are told that " The Lord God formed man of the dust of 
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; 
and man became a living soul." Gen. ii. 7. In this passage 
are narrated several circumstances of man's creation not men- 
tioned in the text or preceding chapter. These circumstances 
are related here to teach us some important and essential 
truths necessary for us to know, in order to understand the 
nature of our own moral endowments, relations, and obliga- 
tions : or this passage of Scripture is a vain, childish repeti- 
tion of insignificant circumstances, entirely useless in an intro- 
duction to the higher law. I adopt the first alternative. 
But what does this passage teach us ? 

1st. It teaches us that the human animal man was from the 
beginning a creature of vastly superior importance to all 
other species of physical organization. That he was created 
for an infinitely superior destiny. That his animal organiza- 
tion was designed and created for the residence of an immor- 
tal spirit during its probation, and to furnish the necessary 
physical machinery for the development and cultivation of his 
intellectual and moral susceptibilities. Therefore, God with 
his own hand, or direct, immediate agency, formed his physi- 
cal organization. Whereas the earth, by the physical laws 
of matter, brought forth all the inferior species of animals. 
" And God said. Let the earth bring forth the living crea- 
tures, and it was so." But the Lord God formed man. 

2d. We are taught in this passage that man was created 
with endowments infinitely superior to any that mere animals 
ever possessed, or could possess or attain ; endowments of 



36 ANTIIROrOLOGY I OR, THE IMAGE 

which there is no likeness, nor the least shadow of similarity 
or resemblance, in all the physical creation besides. " And 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became 
a living soul." What are the essential and distinguishing at- 
tributes of a living human soul ? First, immortality, or a sus- 
ceptibility, or a capability in himself of continuous existence. 
That is, no created power in the universe ; neither his own 
will, nor any other finite being can cause this living soul to 
cease existence. Second, this living soul is endowed with a 
moral sense, or a capacity or susceptibility of perceiving and 
understanding the nature and requirements of law, the rela- 
tions between law and voluntary action, or the distinction be- 
tween right and wrong, holiness and sin, good and evil, in 
the high and moral sense of these terms, and of feeling obli- 
gation, suffering penal infliction, and enjoying reward of 
merit ; in short, the ability to contract a moral character, 
and to discern the relations between that character and his 
future destiny. These are some of the essential attributes of 
a living soul. Without these attributes of immortality and 
moral susceptibilities, man never could have become a living 
soul at all ; but must have ranked with the brutes among 
mere physical organizations, whose spirit, or life, when the 
body dies, goes down to the dust w^hence it originated. 
Now, however, by these endowments he is exalted in his na- 
ture far above the entire physical universe ; and is fully in- 
troduced into the moral sphere, constituted a subject of God's 
moral kingdom, and endowed with a natural right to all the 
privileges and immunities of God's moral subjects ; and sub- 
ject to all the responsibilities of the same. This living soul 
of man, endowed Avith immortality, when the body dies, 
ascends to God who gave it. These high, immortal, essen- 
tial, and, therefore, unchangeable endowments of man, were 
the immediate consequents of this inflation of the breath of 
life, immediately from God, into the creature man. ]S^ow, 
the normal intuitions of all human intellect, the dictates of 
common sense, this text, and the entire scope and meaning 
of the whole Bible, direct us to look for the image and like- 
ness of God, in which man was created, in the essential and 



OF GOD IX AVIIICII MAX WAS CHEATED. 37 

distinguishing endowments of this Hving soul, which exalt 
man above the whole material creation, and place him in the 
sphere of God's moral kingdom. Here, then, in these moral 
endowments of the living soul we have the entire and sole 
image and likeness of God in which man was created. And 
in this moral sense alone consists the only likeness or resem- 
blance to his Maker which can be found in his original na- 
ture, attributes, or endowments. 

A third truth taught in the passage last quoted is, that a 
point of time succeeded after man's creation, in which he ex- 
isted without the knowledge necessary to commence a moral 
existence or moral agency. The phrase, " Man became a liv- 
ing soul," describes a process or change subsequent to and 
consequential of God's act of breathing into his nostrils the 
breath of life. Man, as to his animal organization, existed 
previous to and during this change, for he was the subject of 
the change. He had been formed ; he had nostrils. He was 
endowed with the physical susceptibility of animal life. He, 
therefore, existed necessarily a living creature, actually having 
animal life. But he had no soul. He was only susceptible of 
being a living creature like other mere animals. But this 
divine inflatus commenced a process by which he became a 
living soul. Xot a living creature merely. This process or 
change added to his nature an immaterial, spiritual, and sub- 
stantive existence, the essential attributes of which were im- 
mortality and moral susceptibilities. Without this process, 
without this spiritual substance, and without these high moral 
attributes, the first conception or knowledge of a God, of 
moral law, moral obligation, moral government, accounta- 
bility, or any moral distinction whatever, could never have 
been attained by the human animal. But how did God com- 
municate knowledge to the man Adam, and how did he ac- 
quire knowledge ? 

Some time after he became a living soul, '' The Lord God 
took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it 
and to keep it." Ch. ii. 15, 16, 17. Here we have the whole 
process of instruction and acquisition of knowledge minutely 
and definitely described. And the w^hole process, method, 



38 ANTHROPOLOGY I OR, THE IMAGE 

medium and instrumentality, are identically the same by which 
human agents at the present day acquire knowledge. The 
subjects of knowledge were brought into contact with, or near 
enough to j^roduce loco-motion in the animal organs of sensa- 
tion. The ideas thus conveyed to the mind furnished the 
whole material of human knowledge. These were wrought 
up by combination, abstraction, comparison, and inference. 
When moral science was to be added, the same material was 
used. The ideas of material objects were associated with 
such physical changes as had been witnessed and felt, both 
i:)leasurable and painful to physical sense, and from these the 
nature of law, obligation, and the consequences of voluntary 
action under motive influence of law, were inferred and illus- 
trated ; and man was put on probation to learn the infinite 
wisdom, power and goodness of God, and the absolute per- 
fection of his law, by a series of experiments. The trees of 
the garden, and their relations to the animal instincts, appe- 
tites, and passions of man, furnished most instructive exam- 
ples, and were used to convey to the living soul the ideas of 
the moral consequences of voluntary actions under motive in- 
fluence of law. Articulate sounds were associated with the 
ideas or images of the objects of sense, and of their relations 
and diflerences ; and thus language, the medium of social in- 
tercourse, was taught. Every beast of the field, and every 
fowl of the air, was brought unto Adam to see what he would 
call them, because he had no knowledge of their existence, 
nor could have had till they were brought within the ken of 
his animal senses. But the beasts and fowls existed long be- 
fore man was created. And the rib also, which the Lord 
God had taken from man and made a woman, was brought 
unto the man, because he had no knowledge of her, nor could 
have had till she came under the inspection of his senses. 

But if Adam had been created in knowledge, or with 
knowledge, or if knowledge constituted any part of the 
image and hkeness of God in which he was created, or if 
knowledge, in any way or manner, had been the immediate 
consequence of the creating act of his Maker, then all this 
description of the process of instruction and acquisition of 



OF GOD IX WHICH MAN WAS CREATED. 39 

knowledge is not merely an idle, useless, and cliildisli repeti- 
tion of insignificant circumstances, but is necessarily and ab- 
solutely false. For these primary facts relating to the food 
necessary to his animal life and comfort, and the nature and 
relations of his fellow creatures, must have constituted the 
first knowledge that existed in his intellect. But if this 
knowledge was created in him, or constituted the image and 
likeness in which he was created, then this description, which 
represents God communicating and Adam acquiring this ident- 
ical knowledge subsequent to the period of time which sepa- 
rated his antecedent creation from his subsequent existence as 
a living soul, must be false. And it matters not whether that 
period consisted of a single moment or a thousand years. A 
single moment marks as perfectly the distinction between an- 
tecedent and consequent, as a thousand years. But this de- 
scription is not false. Every word of it is Bible truth. Is 
God's truth : and, therefore, eternal, unchangeable, and infalli- 
ble truth. And the assertion that the image and likeness of 
God, in which man was created, consisted in knowledge, is 
not truth, but is a gross error, because it plainly and dis- 
tinctly contradicts the word of God. Man must know his 
own existence before he knows any thing else : and he must 
exist before it is possible for him to have the first conception 
of his existence. All his knowledge, therefore, is a subse- 
quent matter ; and its acquisition entirely an after concern. 

In relation to knowledge, we may observe that the know- 
ledge of God is infinite, eternal, unchangeable, self-existent, 
an essential attribute or constituent of his nature, indepen- 
dent, universal, comprehending all beings, and all relations, 
events, and circumstances of all things — past, present, and 
future — and is infinitely perfect in relation to all things, both 
possible and impossible. But all possible knowledge of cre- 
ated or finite beings, even of the highest archangel in glory, 
though he may have bowed before the throne of God for 
myriads of ages, and have contemplated, admired, and studied 
the nature, attributes, and character of God, and witnessed all 
his works of creation, providence, and grace, and all the illus- 
trations of his infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, through 



40 ANTHROPOLOGY : OR, THE IMAGE 

all those ages, still all the knowledge he can have attained 
must necessarily be finite, temj^orary, changeable, incidental, 
perfectly dependent, limited to a com23aratively few particular 
things and events, and very imperfect, partial, and limited in 
relation to every thing knowable. Here, then, w^e have an 
infinite diversity, dissimilarity and unlikeness, between the 
knowledge of God and all possible knowledge of finite crea- 
tures. And in Avhatever aspect you may contemplate the 
knowledge of God, or compare it with the knowledge of 
creatures, though you may perceive no contrariety, though it 
may be as truly knowledge in man, as far as it goes, as in 
God, still this infinite dissimilarity and unlikeness will be 
obvious and unavoidable. Whosoever, therefore, affirms that 
knowledge in any creature constitutes any image or likeness 
of God, greatly errs, and illustrates the influence of the law 
of sin and death, in retarding the development of his natural 
endowments. 

Another class of facts confirm and illustrate our position in 
relation to the acquisition of human knowledge. It is a fact, 
well established by scores and hundreds of experiments, both 
accidental and designed, that the nervous organs of animal 
sensation may be totally paralyzed for a time, and yet the 
living soul continue to live in the flesh, constituting the same 
identical agent, man, as before. It is also a fact, established 
by the same experiments, that during this paralysis of the 
animal organs of sensation, all action of the intellectual en- 
dow^ments of the man, and all use of his capabilities of knowl- 
edge, of reasoning, perceiving or thinking, are perfectly sus- 
pended : so that the living soul called man is, for the time 
being, just as incapable of receiving or acquiring knowledge, 
or of using knowledge previously acquired, as a dead corpse 
or a block of marble. We infer from these facts that the 
moral endowments of man, w^hich constitute the living soul, 
are perfectly dependent on the physical organs of animal sen- 
sation, as the only medium through which he may or can re- 
ceive knowledge during his connection w^ith the flesh, and 
that the soul may exist independent of and separate from the 
body ; and, therefore, that he may have existed for a time, 



OF GOD IX WHICH MAN WAS CREATED. 41 

without knowing any thing at all ; and that he did exist sub- 
sequent to his becoming a living soul, and antecedent to his 
first acquisition of knowledge : and, of course, that he was 
not created in knowledge, or with knowledge. 

6th. The image and likeness of God, in which man was cre- 
ated, could not have consisted in righteousness, or true holi- 
ness, or in any thing else pertaining to moral character ; because 
all moral character is the consequence of the voluntary action of 
the subject, acting under the motive influence of the law of God, 
the only standard of moral rectitude, of right and wrong, of 
holiness and sin, in the universe. Righteousness, when pre- 
dicated of a moral agent, hke man, signifies the conformity 
of his voluntary actions to the law of God, including in the 
word actions, all the emotions, feelings and afiections of the 
soul, which he willingly indulges, together with all his overt 
actions. When his actions conform to the requirements of 
the law they are right. They go thus far to constitute right 
moral character, or the personal rightness of the agent. Holi- 
ness when predicated of a finite moral agent, a subject of 
moral government, like man, signifies precisely the same thing. 
When predicated of mere things, and their relations, holiness 
has a more general application, and a more indefinite signifi- 
cation. Its relation to the law of God is more remote and 
indirect, coming through the agency of some real subject, of 
moral obligation. In such cases holiness does not signify real 
moral purity, but only a kind of metaphorical purity, or con- 
secration to a holy use, or service. As when a thing, a 
place, a person, or animal is consecrated to the worship of 
God, it is called holy. Not because any moral purity or moral 
quality is added to it, but because it now sustains a secondary 
relation to persons and things where moral rectitude is en- 
joined by law, and expected by the Law-giver. But when- 
ever holiness is applied to man as a subject of God's moral 
government, it can mean nothing else, more or less, than the 
perfect conformity of his voluntary actions to the law of God, 
or the perfect conformity of his moral character to the only 
standard of moral rectitude and purity. 

Therefore we infer, that neither righteousness, nor holiness. 



42 AXTimoroLOGY : oir, the image 

nor any thing else that constitutes moral character, when 
predicated of man, has any substantive existence in them- 
selves. They never did exist, and never can exist, but as the 
mere quality of a relation. And the relation, which they 
qualify, is not the relation of a substantive existence, but only 
the relation of the voluntary action of a substantive being of 
a peculiar nature, that is of a nature possessing moral endow- 
ments, and acting in peculiar circumstances, that is, acting 
under the motive influence of the law of God. The same is 
true of all moral character, and of every thing that goes to con- 
stitute moral character ; it never had any existence and never 
can exist, but in the relations of the voluntary actions of moral 
agents to the law of God. Every thing of the kind, right or 
wrong, holiness or sin, necessarily depends for existence on 
the relations it qualifies. It never does, nor can exist in the 
abstract, or separate from the relations it qualifies. For no 
quality can exist antecedent to or separate from the subject 
or relation w^iich it qualifies. And no relation can exist ante- 
cedent to the subject which sustains that relation. And no 
action can exist or be performed, or change take place, ante- 
cedent to the author of that act or change. So teacheth the 
Holy Ghost in the word of God. "Whosoever committeth 
sin transgresseth also the laws, for sin is the transgression of 
the law." 1 Jno. iii. 4. " Little children, let no man deceive 
you : he that doth righteousness is righteous, even as he is 
righteous." v. 7. That is even as God is righteous. But how 
does God constitute and perpetuate his perfectly holy and 
righteous character? God creates and maintains a holy or 
righteous character by always doing righteousness. His vo- 
litions and actions are always necessarily in perfect conformity 
to the law; because his perfect law, the only standard of 
moral rectitude, consists solely and exclusively in the expres- 
sion of his own holy will in human language. God's holiness 
then consists, or is found in the relation of his voluntary 
action to his own perfect law of moral rectitude. Holiness in 
man is the same identical quality, produced in the same man- 
ner as in God ; that is by doing righteousness, or always act- 
ing in perfect conformity to the higher law, the only rule of 



OF GOD IX WHICH ^lAX WAS CREATED. 43 

righteousness, or the only line of distinction between right 
and wrong, between holiness and sin. 

Righteousness and true holiness are predicated of Adam. 
No doubt he was a holy man, perfectly righteous, as far as his 
character was formed, antecedent to his eating the forbidden 
fruit. But the question occurs, when and how did Adam 
acquire these traits of moral character ? You say that God 
gave them to him in the process of his original creation, or 
that God created him righteous and holy. But God himself 
says, in the two passages already quoted from 1 Jno. iii. 4 and 
7, that every trait of moral character, good or bad, right or 
wrong, holiness or sin, is created by the voluntary action of 
the subject, and is found only in the relation, which the action 
of the subject, sustains to the law of love. That this is the 
true meaning and intention of the Holy Ghost in these quota- 
tions, is confirmed and illustrated by the whole context. By 
the two great and primary laws of biblical criticism, (the 
locus loquendi^ and the usus loquendi,) every other interpre- 
tation or meaning is excluded. The subject and main obvious 
design of the Apostle, throughout the chapter, is to state dis- 
tinctly and illustrate clearly, to the weakest apprehension, the 
difierence between the character of the adopted children of 
God by grace, and of those who have no claim to such adop- 
tion. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath be- 
stowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." 
" And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, 
even as he (God) is pure." He then directs the attention of 
the reader to the ultimate analysis of moral character, and in 
plain, positive language affirms that all wrong character or sin 
is the result of actual transgression of the law. Whosoever 
committeth sin transgresseth also the law, etc. The assertion 
that sin, in any degree or manner, or any trait of moral pol- 
lution exists in the character, nature, heart or mind of a human 
being, antecedent to his actual transgression of the law of God, 
contradicts the testimony of the Holy Ghost in this text : and is, 
therefore, a falsehood. With respect to right moral character, 
or righteousness and holiness, he, in the seventh verse, affirms 
that every trait of right moral character, even the first and 



44 ANTHROPOLOGY : OR, THE IMAGE 

last, is the result of voluntary action. " He that doeth righ- 
teousness, even as he (God) is righteous." He is a child of 
God, by grace. That renovation of character which assimi- 
lates him to God, in character, is begun. The first generic 
act of the will, in conformity to the requirements of the higher 
law, constitutes the first holy trait in the character of the re- 
generate soul. And this first trait of right character, and 
every subsequent trait, till it rises to perfect holiness, is af- 
firmed in this verse to be the result of rio^ht doings. '' He that 
doeth righteousness is righteous." And, therefore, no trait of 
rightness or holiness can exist or be imparted by God him- 
self antecedent to the right doing of the subject. For he de- 
clares in the tenth verse, "In this the children of God are 
manifest, and the children of the devil : Whosoever doeth not 
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his bro- 
ther." Nothing but right doing, or voluntary action, can 
constitute a child of God, or give a human agent a single trait 
of right, moral character. For the Apostle goes on to confirm 
and illustrate his meaning, and says, verse seventeenth, " But 
whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have 
need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, 
how dwelleth the love of God in him ? " Just as if he had 
said, that the supposition, that righteousness, or holiness, or 
any thing else that pertains to right, moral character, can be 
imparted to, or exist in a human agent, antecedent to his vol- 
untary action under the motive influence of the law of love, is 
a deceitful and real delusion of the devil : as absurd and as 
contradictory as to say a man may hate his brother and mur- 
der him, as Cain did, and yet be a holy, loving child of God. 

Now, no human intellect can conceive how either God or 
man can put human language together, so as to express more 
definitely, clearly and strongly, the impossibihty of imparting 
to a human agent the least trait, shade or item of moral char- 
acter, good or bad, holy or sinful, right or wrong, antecedent 
to his voluntary action under motive influence of the law of 
God. This truth is repeated several times, in plain, simple, 
laconic sentences, in both the positive and negative form, in 
relation to both good and bad, holy and sinful character. 



OF GOD IN WHICH MAN WAS CREATED. 45 

And the meaning of each sentence is illustrated by examples 
of the most prominent and conspicuous facts that ever trans- 
pired within the sphere of liuman knowledge. The first, by 
the most glorious display of infinite love and moral purity 
ever made in the imiverse : God manifested in the flesh to 
take away the sin and guilt of men and destroy the works of 
the devil, vs. 5 and 8. The other, by the first premeditated 
murder that ever stained his footstool with human blood, v. 
12. And with this positive testimony of the Holy Ghost by 
John, agrees the whole word of God contained in the Bible. 
There is not a sentence in the whole book, alluding to the 
subject, but what represents moral character as consequential 
of voluntary action under motive influence of the law of 
God. And Adam's righteousness and holiness, and every 
thing that constituted his perfect character before he ate the 
forbidden fruit, was the result of his right-doing under the 
motive influence of the law. But he had never done right- 
eousness, nor ever had a right voluntary emotion of love 
towards God or his brother, antecedent to his creation in the 
image and likeness of God. He must have existed and acted 
under the law, to acquire the first trait or shade of moral 
character. But before he could act under influence of law 
he must have learned what law meant, and what the law re- 
quired, and must have felt the obligations imposed by the law. 
But before he could do this, he must have acquired some cor- 
rect knowledge of the relations whence the obligations and 
duties imposed by the law are derived ; for no duty or obli- 
gation is imposed by the law of God, but such as result from 
the natural or voluntarily assumed relations of sensitive 
beings. The law of the Lord is also the law of nature, im- 
posed by the God of nature ; and is, therefore, perfectly adapted 
to the natural relations of things. But before Adam could 
attain any adequate knowledge of these relations, he must 
have known the existence of the subjects who sustained these 
I'dations, and must have acquired some good degree of knowl- 
edge of their natures and their susceptibilities of good and 
evil, pleasure and pain. For example, he must have acquired 
some knowledge of God, of his attributes and perfection, 



46 ANTHROPOLOGY : OK, THE IMAGE 

before he could have any correct conception of the relations 
of Creator and creature, or could have felt any obligation 
resulting from those relations, to love and obey his Creator. 
So of liis fellow-creature, he must have known him and under- 
stood the relation he sustained and his susceptibility of pleas- 
in-e and pain, before he could feel any moral emotion towards 
him, either right or wrong, love or hate. 

Here then Ave have a lengthy chain of sequences, or series 
of antecedent and consequent changes which Adam must have 
passed through before he could give any moral quality to his 
volitions or actions, either right or wrong. But every step 
in this series must necessarily have occupied time. Because 
the living soul, Adam, at the time existed in a physical organ- 
ization, and acted through the medium of the organs of ani- 
mal sensation and motion. And all change in the physical 
system consists of locomotion ; and loco-motion occupies both 
time and space. Even the thoughts of the living soul, while 
in the flesh, must occupy time, because they are finite ; they 
had a beginning, they are successive, and each thought necessa- 
rily involves the locomotion of some physical organ. 

I believe that Adam was created a perfect living soul, and 
a perfect human animal, and was perfectly adapted in all his 
endowments by infinite wisdom, power and goodness, to the 
sphere he was designed to occupy, and, therefore, capable of 
acquiring knowledge and performing duty as rapidly as possi- 
ble for any human animal. But acting in the flesh, every 
breath of the body, and every thought of the soul, must have 
occupied time. Therefore, days and weeks, if not months 
and years, must have elapsed, before he could have acquired 
suflicient knowledge to act under motive influence of law or 
begin to acquire moral character. At least, he must have 
been created in the image and likeness of God, and must have 
existed in that image before he could begin to do righteous- 
ness, or have any holy emotions of love to God or his brother. 
Therefore, it was absolutely and physically impossible that 
righteousness or holiness should have constituted any part of 
the image and likeness in which he was created. Because it 
is impossible that the consequent should precede the antece- 



OF GOD IX AVIIICII MAN WAS CREATED. 47 

dent, or that an effect should exist before the cause that pro- 
duced it. 

But admitting the thing were possible, and that God did 
create Adam perfectly righteous and holy, his righteousness 
and holiness could have constituted no image or likeness of 
God. Because all the righteousness and holiness, and all 
the right moral character of created agents, during probation, 
is incidental, changeable, contingent, or uncertain as to dura- 
tion. Such was all the moral character that Adam possessed 
before his fall. But God in all his endowments is unchange- 
able ; and contingency cannot be predicated of an infinite 
being. And the image of God in which man was created, as 
hath been shown, must have consisted in something essential 
both to the nature of God and of man, and, therefore, un- 
changeable. But neither righteousness nor holiness is essen- 
tial to human nature. For thousands exist without either, as 
truly men, as the most holy. 

Again, the image of God in which Adam was created was 
the effect of the divine agency in the creating act exclusively, 
and without the knowledge, concurrence or agency of Adam. 
But all righteousness and holiness, and every thing included in 
moral character, as we have proved by the testimony of God, 
reiterated throughout the whole Bible, is exclusively and 
wholly resulting from the action of the subject, and is found 
only in the relation his actions sustain to the law of God. 
And therefore nothing that belonged to Adam's moral charac- 
ter could have constituted any part of the image of God in 
which he was created. 

7. We, therefore, adopt with the utmost assurance the only 
remaining alternative, viz: that the image and likeness of 
God in which man was created, consisted in his moral endow- 
ments, or those susceptibihties which constitute his moral 
sense, and which are generally denominated natural conscience. 
Or, in other words, it consisted in those endowments or capa- 
bilities which enable man to act under the motive influence of 
law, freely choosing his own course, doing right or wrong, 
contracting righteousness and holiness, or sin and guilt at his 
pleasure, and thus constituting a moral character and creating 



48 ANTimOPOLOGY : OR, THE IMAGE 

or deciding his future destiny. These endowments alone 
place man within the moral sphere of created existence. They 
alone constitute him a moral agent. They only make him a 
subject of God's moral government. As soon as these en- 
dowments are developed by the necessary knowledge, they 
render man capable of holy emotions, of right-doings, and of 
acquiring moral character. But without these endowments, 
the prohibition of the tree of knowledge, and the consequences 
of eating of it addressed to Adam, would have been as sense- 
less and destitute of meaning as if addressed to a stone or a 
block of wood. Without these endoAvments the thing which 
God formed of the dust of the earth could never have be- 
come a living soul, or a moral agent, or a subject of moral 
government, or capable of moral obligation, or of doing right 
or wrong, or of acquiring moral character, or of possessing 
it by gift of God. And if these endowments were not the 
identical thing which God imparted to his nature when he 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and which con- 
stituted the image of God in which he was created, then the 
animal man must have eternally remained a mere brute ani- 
mal, as destitute and as incapable of the first conception of 
moral distinction, or quality, of right or wrong, of holiness 
or sin, as any oyster. 

But these endowments were in man and of his nature, be- 
fore it was possible that he could do righteousness, or have a 
holy emotion, or possess or reflect the least shade of moral 
quality. And they do constitute in the very nature of man, 
the most perfect image and likeness of God that can be con- 
ceived in the finite. An image or endowments in the nature 
of man just as essential to, and as permanent in his nature, 
as his continuous or immortal existence. And these endow- 
ments are just as essential to the divine nature as they are to 
the human nature. This image of God thus constituted in 
man, is just as like to God as God is like himself, with the 
exception of one single trait or circumstance. In man these 
endowments are finite ; in God they are infinite. But man 
in his finite, appropriate sphere of action, where all his duties, 
interests and happiness lie, was as God created him, just as . 



OF GOD IX AVHICII MAX AVAS CREATED. 49 

capable of knowing and fulfilling his duty and securing all 
his interests and happiness, as God was of knowing his obli- 
gations, and securing his honor, glory and blessedness in the 
infinite sphere. 

Now this is the obvious and the only conceivable meaning 
(if they had any meaning at all) of the Westminster Assem- 
bly, in their larger catechism, when they affirm, with respect 
to this identical creation of man in the image of God, " Hav- 
ing the law of God written in their hearts, and power to fulfil 
it." But, whatever they may have meant, the Holy Ghost, 
by Paul, whom they quote as proof of their affirmation, did 
undoubtedly intend to teach that man was created with per- 
fect ability to know and perform his whole duty, even as God 
knows and performs his duty. Rom. ii. 14, 15. ''For when 
the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things 
contained in the law, are a law unto themselves : w^hich show 
the w^ork of the law written in their hearts, their consciences 
also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanw^hile ac- 
cusing or else excusing one another." And Solomon also, 
w^hom they quote, meant the same thing. Eccl. vii. 29. " God 
hath made man upright" (or right). His entire nature, 
wdth all its endownnents and tendencies, was perfectly adapted 
and fully competent to fill his intended sphere of action with 
righteous doing, holy character, and perfect happiness. 

We can not charitably suppose that the Assembly of Di- 
vines intended to commit any solecism, or teach any absurdity, 
or contradict themselves or the word of God. But we have 
very good reason to believe that the greatest and best of men, 
gince the fall, may err. This truth w^e often see illustrated 
and confirmed in the pulpit, in books, and in public assem- 
blies ; when the most learned, pious, and orthodox divines of 
the land publicly affirm that all the sin in the universe, and 
especially the sin of kidnapping human beings and selling 
them into perpetual slavery, treating them like brute animals, 
is a holy institution of God, unchangeably established from 
eternity by the counsel of his will, for his own glory and the 
good of his nature. The Assembly do most truly and cor- 
rectly aflBrm the truth, and the whole truth on the subject, in 
3 



50 ANTHEOrOLOGY I OR, THE IMAGE 

the words we have quoted ; and prove by their quotations 
from Rom. and Eccl. that the image of God, in which man 
was created, did consist in the moral endowments of his na- 
ture, and in nothing else. For if the laAV of God was written 
in their hearts, it was absolutely impossible for them not to 
know intuitively and immediately, on the first conception or 
knowledge of any relation involving duty, every obligation 
Avhicli the law of God can impose in connection with such 
relation. This endowment, with power to fulfil the law of 
God, certainly must constitute the highest, most extensive 
and perfect moral endowment which Almighty God can con- 
fer on any created, intelligent, human, angelic, or super an- 
gelic ; and the most exact and perfect image of God w^hich 
created intelligence can conceive. But in the preceding af- 
firmation, that the image of God in which man was created 
consisted in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, they say 
much more than the truth, and actually get a little the start 
of the Creator himself. God teaches, as we have shown, that 
righteousness and holiness are the consequents of duty both 
known and actually performed, or of actually doing right- 
eousness, and loving his neighbor in deeds that may be seen, 
felt, or tasted, or relieve some need of a brother. But it cer- 
tainly looks a little solecistic to see Adam performing the 
works of a moral agent, before he had the endowments that 
constitute a moral agent, or to see him exhibiting traits of 
character which belong only to tried living moral agents, be- 
fore it was possible for him to have known a single relation 
from which duty could result, or to have felt the least obli- 
gation or holy emotion. If they do not contradict themselves 
in ascribing moral character to Adam before his voluntary ac- 
tion under motive influence of law, they certainly contradict 
the plain, positive testimony of God, and all the intuitions of 
common sense. They place the consequent before the ante- 
cedent. They affirm the effect as actually in being before the 
cause existed. Knowledge, righteousness, and holiness must, 
therefore, be expunged from the image of God in which man 
was created, and appropriated to his moral character, which 
was necessarily an after concern both with God and man. 



OF GOD IX AVIIICII MAN WAS CKEATED. 51 

But the Assembly quote Scripture to sustain their assertion 
that knowledge, righteousness, and holiness constituted the 
image of God in which man was originally created. With 
respect to knowledge they quote Col. iii. 10 : "And have put 
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the 
image of him that created him." And to prove righteousness 
and holiness as constituents of that image, they quote Eph. 
iv. 24 : " And that ye put on the new man, which after God 
is created in righteousness and true holiness." These two 
passages are very nearly parallels. They are by the same 
author, Paul : addressed to the same class of persons, to 
saints and faithful brethren in Christ, at Colosse and Ephesus : 
they both treat of the same subject, the moral characters of 
professors in Christ : they both emj)loy the same metaphors 
to express the same things, taken from the history of the 
original creation of man in our text : and they both teach the 
same important and fundamental truth. The characters of 
these saints are expressed by the metaphors of the old man 
and the new man. The old man represented their former 
characters as pagans, or unregenerate sinners. The new man 
represented their renovated characters as faithful believers. 
To the Colossians the perfect moral character of God is pre- 
sented under the metaphor of the image of him that created 
him, as the model after which they were to shape their 
characters. To the Ephesians the same pattern is presented 
in a somewhat varied metaphor. The important and funda- 
mental truth taught in both these quotations is, that right- 
eousness and holiness, and every thing else pertaining to right 
moral character in man, is created, brought into existence, 
and acquired by the voluntary action of the subject acting 
under the motive influence of the law of God. " Seeing that 
ye have put off the old man with his deeds ; and have put on 
the new man, which is renewed in knowledge," etc. Here 
this truth is affirmed as a positive fact of their past history. 
" And that ye put on the new man, which after God is cre- 
ated," &c. Here the same truth is affirmed as an indispensa- 
ble duty. The method by which they put off the old man, 
and put on the new, was by ceasing to lie, steal, and commit 



62 AXTiinoroLOGY : on, the image 

fornication, etc. ; that is, by ceasing to do evil, or ceasing to 
transgress the law. And they put on the new man by speak- 
ing truth, working with the hands the thing which is good, 
or by obeying the law, after the example of Christ. Now, 
this fundamental truth of all moral government, obligation, 
and accountability, involves a positive contradiction to the 
proposition that righteousness and holiness constitute the 
image of God in which man was created. For the latter 
proposition affirms that moral character in man is created by 
the immediate agency of God, without the knowledge, con- 
currence, or agency of man. And the other, the truth taught 
in these quotations, affirms that moral character in man is 
created by his own voluntary agency, under motive influence 
of the law of God. 

So far from giving any support, countenance, or proof of 
the dogma of original righteousness, these quotations teach 
the falsehood of that and every other dogma that imputes 
moral character, good or bad, holy or sinful, to any human 
agent antecedent to his voluntary action under motive influ- 
ence of law. In this they harmonize perfectly with all truth, 
revealed, intuitive, or by rational induction. God creates 
man in his own image by endowing his nature with the sus- 
ceptibilities, or capabilities, or faculty of perceiving, under- 
standing, and performing all the duties resulting from all the 
relations which he sustains ; thus bringing him under the 
motive influence of the higher law, and adapting all the ten- 
dencies of his nature to right moral action, or obedience to 
that law. This is the utmost extent of all that the Almighty 
God has done, or can do, in relation to the production of 
moi-al character in human agents. All the rest is the result 
of the voluntary action of the human subject. These moral 
endowments or suscejDtibilities constitute the only image of 
God which omnipotence can impart to a finite created being, 
or of which a created being can be the recipient, or can form 
any definite conception. If afterwards there exists a simi- 
larity or likeness of moral character, that is created by the 
voluntary action of the subject himself; and depends solely 
and exclusively on his action. 



OF GOD IX WHICH MAN WAS CREATED. 53 

II. The phrase male and female created he them, teaches 
this important and essential truth of God's moral system, viz. 
That man was created with perfect ability to transmit this 
image of God to his posterity, from one generation to another, 
to the end of time. This was absolutely necessary for the 
continuance of God's moral government over this world, and 
for the i)erpetuity of the human race, or the existence of man- 
kind beyond the first generation. As the image of God was 
essential to the nature of man, and was also that peculiar, dis- 
tinguishing and characteristic endowment, which constituted 
him a man, in distinction from mere animal existence, which 
made him a moral agent, and a subject of moral government, 
if Adam might have lost that image, or might have failed to 
transmit it to his posterity, or if any subsequent generation 
of the race might have failed to transmit it, their posterity 
must necessarily have ceased to be men, or human agents, or 
moral agents, or accountable beings, or capable of moral gov- 
ernment at all, in any way, sense or manner. They must 
have degenerated into mere brute animals, or creeping things. 
And God's moral kingdom in this world must have become 
extinct. 

But when God had created Adam in his own image, he 
" Blessed them, and said unto them. Be fruitful, and multiply 
and replenish the earth, and subdue it : and have dominion 
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over 
every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Here is a 
plain, positive declaration, and assurance, of the perpetuity of 
that image of God, which qualified man to have dominion 
over the earth, and which constituted him a man, in distinction 
from brutes as long as man existed, and wherever man should 
exist, and in w^hatever state, character or condition man may 
exist. This truth is confirmed by the entire history, experi- 
ence and consciousness of the whole race to the present day. 
If any seeming exception occurs, as of moral idiocy or intel- 
lectual imbecility, it is always ascribed, by universal consent, 
to some physical defect, malformation, disease or viciosity of 
the animal organs. Therefore, when Adam begat children, 
he begat them in his own likeness. " And Adam lived an 



54 ANTHROrOLOGY I OR, THE IMAGE 

hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own Hkeness, 
after his image." — Gen. v. 3. And every generation since, 
have done the same, and transmitted the same moral nature 
and endowments, or susceptibihties to their posterity. 

Now the declaration, by which this testimony of God has 
been falsified and perverted, viz : that this image and likeness 
of Adam, in his son, consisted in a sinful nature, or sinful 
inclination, or innate moral depravity, or original sin, trans- 
mitted by natural generation, is plainly a falsehood. It is a 
falsehood because it contradicts the whole testimony of God 
on the subject, as has been fully shown. It is false because it 
contradicts the entire history of the human race. No man 
was ever born with a sinful nature, or sinful inclination, or 
innate moral depravity, or original sin ; the thing is a physi- 
cal impossibility, as has been demonstrated, because it involves 
a contradiction. But all men are born with moral suscepti- 
bilities. It is false because it contradicts all human conscious- 
ness. Every human being, that ever lived on the earth to 
develop manhood, was conscious of obligation to do right 
and avoid the wrong. But no man on earth was ever con- 
scious of obligation, or ever could be, antecedent to his knowl- 
edge of law. " For by the law is the knowledge of sin." 
And also of holiness. " For where no law is there is no 
transgression." And no obedience likewise. Therefore, any 
consciousness of moral obligation, moral distinction, or moral 
quality antecedent to the knowledge of law, is just as impossi- 
ble, as seeing is, where there are no eyes and nothing to be 
seen. But without this image of God, consisting in these 
moral endowments or susceptibilities of creating his own 
moral character, the two-legged animal called man, would be 
just as incapable of perceiving any moral quality or distinc- 
tion of actions or persons, or of feeling moral obligation, or 
sustaining moral character, as any creeping thing, that ever 
moved upon the earth. 

Finally, the word man, as used in the text, is a generic 
term, including the whole human race and every individual 
of the human race. This is perfectly obvious from the use 
of the plural pronoun in the text, and in the preceding and 



OF GOD IX AVIIICII MAX AVAS CREATED. 55 

following verses, and also from the grammatical connections 
of tlie context. God said, " Let us make man ; and let tli.cm 
have dominion." '' So God created man in his own image — 
male and female created he tliemP " And God blessed them^ 
and said unto tliein^ Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the 
earth and subdue it." If the word man is not used in the text 
as a generic term, meaning the whole human race, and if the 
whole human race and every individual of the human race 
was not created at that time and by that act and in that image 
of God, this language of Moses is not truth, but is solecism, 
absurdity, contradiction, and impossibility. For Eve, not 
being then formed, it was impossible for Adam to be fruitful 
and multiply or replenish the earth. It is perfect absurdity 
and nonsense to talk of a single individual's subduing the 
earth, and having dominion over every living thing that mov- 
eth upon the earth. But a vast number, sufficient to replenish 
the earth and subdue it were addressed, and spoken of as then 
created in the image of God. If, therefore, Adam's posterity 
since the fall, or any part of them, have come into existence 
destitiite of the image of God in which he was created, this 
passage of the history is false and contradictory. We are, 
therefore, compelled, in order to reconcile the connections of 
this context, and avoid absurdity and contradiction, to adopt 
as the final conclusion that the image of God, in which man 
was created, consisted exclusively in his moral endowments 
or susceptibilities, and in nothing else. And that this image 
of God is an essential constituent of his nature, without which 
he cannot exist at all. And, therefore, that every individual 
of the human race commences existence in this image of God 
just as Adam did, and necessarily retains it perfect and entire, 
whatever his character and condition may be, as long as he 
continues to exist. 

1st. From this discussion we learn that all moral character, 
that is, all holiness, all righteousness, all personal rightness of 
character, all moral character, all moral virtue, all moral ^Dur- 
ity, and all sin, all moral depravity, moral pollution and guilt, 
and every thing that pertains to moral character, either good 
or bad, right or wrong, is found only in, and exists no where 



56 ANTIIROrOLOGY I OF., THE lilAGE 

else, and is exclusively dependent upon the relation, which 
the voluntary action of the subject sustains to the law of 
God. This is true of every moral agent and of every thing, 
of which moral character or quality can be truly predicated, 
both in the infinite and the finite. This is truth, because the 
true God, the God of truth, of whom it is written that " It 
is impossible for him to lie," hath affirmed it in plain terms. 
" He that doeth righteousness is righteous." '' Whosoever 
doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth 
not his brother." 1 Jno. iii. 7 and 10. " Whosoever commit- 
teth sin transgresseth also the law : for sin is the transgression 
of the law." 1 John iii. 4, and Eze. i. 5-9. It is impossible, 
therefore, for righteousness or holiness to exist, but in that 
relation to the law, which is called obedience or doing right- 
eousness, or for sin to exist, but in that relation to the law 
which is called transgression. With this agrees the entire 
teaching of the Bible throughout. The word is not found in 
that book that intimates the possibility of moral character or 
quality existing any where else but in the relation of the vol- 
untary action of the subject to the higher law. Every thing 
that goes to constitute moral character or moral quality, right 
or wrong, sinful or holy, is represented in the Bible as result- 
ant of the voluntary action of the subject under motive in- 
fluence of law, or under conscious obligation imposed by law. 
I know and believe this teaching of the Bible to be the truth 
of God, because all the intuitions of those intellectual and 
moral susceptibilities or endowments which God gave me in 
the act of my creation, confirm this truth, and perfectly con- 
cur with the word of God in compelling me to believe it as 
divine truth. I mean those intuitions of the human intellect 
and conscience which are involuntary, necessary and unavoid- 
able by any human agent, when their antecedents are presented 
to the mind. For example : when a man fulfils a conscious 
obligation imposed on him by the law of God, he can not avoid 
feeling justified in the performance of that act. And when he 
violates an obligation, which he is conscious the law of God 
imposes upon him, he can not avoid feeling conscious guilt or 
ill desert for doing it. Again, if moral action or crime is 



OF GOD IN WHICH MAN WAS CREATED. 57 

ascribed to any human agent, which he neA^er performed, nor 
consented to, or had any knowledge of till long after it was 
performed, he can not avoid knowing and feeling that he is 
perfectly innocent, unaccountable and irresponsible in relation 
to that act or crime. He cannot repent of, nor avoid feeling 
self-complacency for doing the same. These unavoidable in- 
tuitions I know and beheve, and I can not avoid knowing and 
believing them to be the first, the highest, the most infallible 
and unmistakable revelation that God ever made, or can make 
to any human intellect existing in the flesh. I believe this 
truth also, because I know, by continuous experiment, for 
more than sixty years, that it is absolutely impossible for a 
human intellect, in the flesh, to attain, acquire, or receive even 
from God, the least perception, or to form the least conception 
of moral character, quality or distinction, but as resultant of 
voluntary action, under motive influence of the law of God. 
This higher law of the Lord is the only thing in the universe 
which marks the line of distinction between right and wrong, 
hohness and sin. It runs through every relation that exists, 
or that can exist among moral agents, finite and infinite, from 
the throne of Jehovah down to the lowest creature ever en- 
dowed with moral susceptibilities. By placing his own act, 
voHtion, emotion, or afiection in contact, and comparing it with 
this law of the Lord, the human agent acquires a conception 
of moral distinction. And by no other way, means or method, 
and by no other medium or influence, can he attain any per- 
ception of moral distinction or quality. By abstracting all 
limitation and imperfection from this perception of righteous- 
ness thus acquired, he obtains a conception of the infinite ho- 
liness or moral character of God ; and in no other way. 
Therefore, every supposition of moral character, either holi- 
ness or sin, antecedent to voluntary action, under motive in- 
fluence of law, necessarily involves a contradiction, an impos- 
sibihty, a falsehood. 

2d. We learn from this discussion that the dogmas of orig- 
inal righteousness and original sin, and every other dogma, 
doctrine, proposition, or afiirmation, that j)redicates moral 
character of a human agent antecedent to, or separate from 
3* 



58 ANTIIROrOLOGY : OE, TUE IMAGE 

his voluntary action, under motive influence of la^v, are mere 
fictions of the depraved human imagination, without founda- 
tion, without cause, and without existence, either in the na- 
ture, relations or accidents of things existent ; because all 
moral character, right or wrong, sin or holiness, exists only in 
the relation of voluntary action to law, and is impossible in 
every other place and relation. And yet these fictitious dog- 
mas have been the subjects of long and bitter conflicts and 
contentions in the Church for ages, producing divisions, per- 
secutions and bloodshed. And they are still a prominent sub- 
ject of theological conflict, as recently announced in the de- 
claration of war by the Calvinistic aUies of New England and 
New York, against the whole host of Armenian recusants of 
the United States. See the "American Theological Review, 
the Introduction." And yet not a single dogma of this whole 
category has any real connection Avith or relation to Christi- 
anity, or can in any way promote the end of the Christian 
system. Christianity is a remedial scheme of grace, for the 
recovery of human agents, from the consequents of a bad 
character, by an entire moral renovation of the same. But 
every dogma of this class removes the case of the sinner en- 
tirely out of the moral sphere of the universe, and places him 
and his depraved condition as perfectly in the physical system 
as any distempered horse or sheep. Such dogmas can only 
tend to befog, obscure and scandalize the Christian doctrines 
of the Bible, and hide revealed truth from the light of common 
sense and human experience. But the Christian system of 
theology, when divested of such dogmas of mysticism, is a 
plain, simple, harmonious connection of divine truth, perfectly 
natural, and easily understood by every human agent of com- 
mon sense, who is willing and wishes to understand it. And 
it never fails when the story of the cross is told in plain, com- 
mon sense language, to exhibit its convicting and saving in- 
fluence on every guilty soul that listens to it. But this same 
gospel of Christ, which is the power of God imto salvation, 
when wrapt up in the fog and mysticism of these theological 
fictions, may be and is often preached to large congregations 
of very civilized and cultivated sinners by learned, pious and 



OF GOD IX WHICH MAX WAS CREATED. 59 

zealous theologians, in eloquent and interesting sermons, for 
months and years, without pricking a single heart, or disturl>- 
ing a human conscience, or converting a sinner from the error 
of his way. And this has been the case ever since these 
dogmas were introduced into the Christian theology in the 
fourth century, because their only tendency ever has been, 
and must be, to obscure the Christian doctrines, and destroy 
their moral influence, for the conversion of sinners. 

3d. From this disscussion Ave infer, that a total repudiation, 
and expunging of all such dogmas from Christian theology, is 
the only method of saving the character of God, the moral 
Sovereign, from the blasphemous scandal of creating moral 
agents and placing them on probation under a government of 
law, but without ability to form a right moral character, and 
secure a happy futurity. This scandal is the natural and ne- 
cessary inference from the affirmation that God created man 
in righteousness and holiness ; or that man needed special up- 
holding grace in his primitive state of rectitude, or that he 
needs any supernatural power of God, for his salvation, since 
Christ has made perfect pro^dsion for the pardon of all sins 
past, and for the perfect moral renovation of every believing 
sinner ; especially where the gospel of Christ, which is the 
power of God unto salvation, is in the hands of the sinner, 
enforced by ten thousand most powerful motives. And this 
scandal is also the necessary and unavoidable inference from 
the declaration that God inflicts a sinful nature or innate 
moral depravity, involving total inability, for right moral ac- 
tion, upon infants of the human race, in punishment for Adam's 
sin. Indeed, it is a necessary inference from every dogma that 
imputes human character to any other cause, influence or ante- 
cedent, than the voluntary action of the subject under motive 
influence of law. The idea that God creates, or causes, or in 
any way determines or fixes the character of a subject of his 
government to be, what it ought not to be, and then punishes 
the subject for its being so, is not only preposterous and ab- 
surd, but blasphemous, ascribing to God the very conduct of 
the adversary. And these scandals drive many honest, sincere 
inquirers from orthodox places of worship to seek instruction 



60 ANTiir.oroLOGY : ok, the image 

where the true doctrines of the gospel are ignorantly repudi- 
ated, in order to avoid these scandalous dogmas. And thus 
multitudes in this Christian land are induced to embrace uni- 
versalism, deism, unitarianism, destructionism, and similar 
delusions, to avoid these scandals which common sense can 
not believe, and human intellect will not assent to. And such 
delusions will and must continue to increase, and their deluded 
followers multiply, with the increase of popular education, so 
long as such dogmas are inculcated as Christian doctrines. 

4th. We learn from this discussion, that man is not that 
imbecile, nonefficient, physical, intellectual or moral machine, 
which is often described by the advocates of these inexplicable 
dogmas. A mere physical intellect, like other material ani- 
mals, from which God may, by operating the machine with 
his own direct, immediate agency, and putting on the whole 
influence of his supernatural omnipotence, force out a small 
portion of moral virtue, or right moral action, to the praise 
of his own glory. But which, the moment God shuts off his 
supernatural power, the devil may occupy, and sit to the tune 
of moral evil, and pour out a tremendous, overwhelming flood 
of sin and misery, in spite of the subject and his JNIaker too. 

But when these fictions of mysticism are brushed out of the 
Christian theology, man stands forth in the light of truth, a 
living, immortal soul, with intellectual endowments, as far 
above all mere animal organization as the moral sphere of 
existence is superior to materialism ; and with moral suscepti- 
bilities as like his divine Creator as God is like himself, the 
limitation of finite extent only excepted. By these high en- 
dowments man is rendered perfectly able to fill up the entire 
sphere of agency, for which he was created, with right moral 
action and pleasurable emotion ; thus constituting for him- 
self a right moral character and perfect blessedness ; or to fill 
up his sphere of action with trangression, and involve himself 
in sin and misery. Thus endowed, we behold him on proba- 
tion, and the entire responsibility of deciding the contingency 
of his character and destiny imposed upon his own free vol- 
untary choice. First under an administration of perfect law ; 
and as soon as he had transgressed that law, under the ad- 



OF GOD IX WHICH MAX WAS CHEATED. Gl 

ministration of the gracious provision of the same law, which 
provision constitutes its crowning perfection ; but still under 
the same solemn responsibility of deciding his own character 
and destiny by the free action of his own will. 

This image of God, and this perfect ability in man which it 
constitutes, are as essential endowments in the human nature 
of man while he exists, as any attribute of Deity is in the 
divine nature while God exists. The loss of this image, and 
the perfect ability it constitutes, by any human agent, must, 
therefore, constitute the loss of existence or anniliilation of 
that man ; for this image of God is the thing which consti- 
tutes the two-legged human animal a man and a moral agent, 
in distinction from brute animals. Therefore, the moment he 
is divested of this image, he ceases to be the creature man, of 
whom it is written, " So God created man in his own image, 
in the image of God created he him." Divested of this 
image, and its consequent moral ability, he necessarily ceases 
to be accountable, and is totally incapable of being rewarded 
or punished. 

The law of the Lord, imder which every moral agent exists 
and passes his probationary trial in the flesh, is an absolutely 
perfect law or system of moral government. The perfection 
of this law necessarily includes three traits of divine excel- 
lence above all other systems, actual or conceivable. 1st. It 
secures to every obedient subject perfect freedom of choice ; 
so that the emotions, desires, and actions of the subject can 
never be determined or necessitated by any influence ah 
extra to his own will. 2d. It carries its penal sanction 
in its own absolute perfection, and executes the same by its 
own motive influence, independent of all other influences, 
powers, or causality in the universe. 3d. It contains ample, 
adequate, and perfect provision for every possible contingency 
of a perfect moral government. Any system of moral gov- 
ernment lacking either of these divine perfections must be ex- 
ceedingly defective, and totally inadequate for an everlasting 
dominion. Among the contingencies of such a moral govern- 
ment is the introduction of sin by transgression. The ade- 
quate and perfect provision for this contingency is the gracious 



G2 AXTIII^OrOLOGY : or., THE IMAGE 

scheme of salvation, by the atonmg sacrifice of a divine Medi- 
ator in human flesh, as exhibited in the gospel of Christ. 
Therefore, immediately on the occurrence of this contingency, 
God presented himself in the likeness of a human person, and 
proposed this scheme of salvation to the agents by whom sin 
entered into this world. They concurred in it, accepted it, 
performed the conditions of it, repented of their sins, and 
believed in the promised seed of the woman, the divine Medi- 
ator. Their sins were pardoned, their guilt was removed, 
and they for ever absolved from liability of j^enal infliction for 
sins past. 

But the physical efiects of their transgression on their ani- 
mal organization could not be removed without the dissolu- 
tion of the flesh ; and this could not be efiected without de- 
feating the gracious ]3rovision of the law for the salvation of 
transgressors, till their probation should be ended. For the 
seed of the woman was the only capable person to give the 
ransom. Therefore, this physical depravity or viciosity of the 
animal organization remains, and is transmitted by natural 
generation to every individual of the race. But this image 
of God, the moral endowments with which man was created, 
and the perfect ability which they constitute to fulfil all obli- 
gation imposed by law, still remain in every human agent just 
as they were in Adam on the day in which he was created ; 
and must necessarily so remain as long as that agent exists a 
moral agent, a man, a subject of moral government, or an 
accountable creature in any sense whatever. For this image 
alone constitutes him an agent, a man, a subject of moral 
government. But in consequence of the physical depravity 
of the animal organization, these moral susceptibilities are 
retarded, or wholly prevented in their development ; and 
hence, in a large proportion of the race, they never begin to 
be developed, and the subjects never begin to contract a 
moral character in the present life, merely for want of the 
physical machine necessary for the intellectual being to com- 
mence action. But they die in infancy, in idiocy, or in ignor- 
ance of a moral Sovereign and a moral government, and are 
removed to a more wholesome moral atmosphere, for the de- 



OF GOD IX WHICH MAN WAS CREATED. 03 

velopment of their intellectual and moral susceptibilities ; 
while all who live in the flesh, to develop manhood and moral 
agency, and begin to form moral character, are still on pro- 
bation, under the same perfect law of the Lord which con- 
verts the soul ; but under an administration of pure grace, 
with perfect ability, both physical and moral, to perform 
every duty, and fulfil every obligation, which this perfect 
law may, or can, impose upon them, or which may result 
from any relation they may sustain while in the flesh. 

Thus, in the light of truth, the character and condition of 
human agents are divested of all those inexplicable dogmas 
and unmeaning mysticisms which contradict the Avord of God 
and common sense, and are often read in books and heard 
from the pulpit. Such, for example, as that all the human 
race are suflering from their birth, a sinful nature, total 
hinate moral depravity, guilt, and a complicated load of 
misery, inflicted by God in punishment of Adam's sin, com- 
mitted ages before they existed. Or, that the whole human 
race are now on probation, under the most solemn obligations 
to fulfil all righteousness, and at the same time totally desti- 
tute of moral ability to put forth a single right emotion or 
act of moral character. But every human agent of mature 
age and common sense may know and imderstand, if he 
wishes to know and is willing to see, the whole subject of 
his character, condition, duty, interest" and destiny, as a sub- 
ject of God's moral government. Nay, he can not avoid 
knowing and understanding the whole, without constant 
efibrt to exclude the light of truth from his intellectual and 
moral susceptibilities ; for it is all matter of conscious, prac- 
tical experiment with him in all his intercourse with human 
society. 

5th. We learn from this discussion the true reason why the 
world has not been evangelized ages ago, and the whole earth 
now occupied with Christian churches, walking in the peace 
and fellowship of the gospel. For two centuries after the 
day of Pentecost the progress of the gospel was such that, if 
continued without interruption, the Avhole world must have 
been evano-elized eio-ht or ten centuries ao-o. At the close of 



64 ANTHROPOLOGY I OR, THE IMAGE 

the third century the geographical bounds of Christendom 
were greater than at the present time ; and the comparative 
number of Christians on earth, and the influence of Christian 
truth in converting human agents, was apparently greater 
than at any period since. In the beginning of the Christian 
era, the gospel could be preached in any place, by any person 
who had heard and believed it, without any long or expensive 
pre23aration. Illiterate, uneducated persons, common labor- 
ers, travelling journeymen, and even women, could publish 
the good news ; and wherever the story of the cross was told, 
converts were multipHed daily, and scores, hundreds, and 
thousands added to the Church. But as soon as Christian 
doctors began to assume authority, and impose their own 
theological fictions on the Church, as Christian doctrines, the 
influence of Christianity began to decline. The Church was 
rent into sections, contending and fighting for the dogmas of 
difierent schools and teachers. 

From sometime in the fourth century to the fifteenth, the 
movement of Christianity in the world was retrograde. Vast 
countries, which in the fourth century Avere occujoied with 
Christian churches and millions of pious believers, were, in the 
beginning of the fifteenth, perfect moral desolations, with- 
out a church or a Christian, and almost without human in- 
habitant. Pure Christianity could only be found in a few 
obscure locations, such as the mountains of Switzerland, Scot- 
land and Wales, the farther India, and perhaps some remote 
province of China or Persia. In the same period, millions of 
human agents had been slain in the wars and persecutions 
waged for the defence of human dogmas as foreign from 
Christianity, and as false as any pretended measurement of a 
mountain on the back side of the moon. And since the great 
reformation in the sixteenth century, in Western Europe, the 
influence of Christianity has been, on the whole, rather retro- 
grade in all those countries most favored at that period. And 
the present increased eflforts and success in difiiising the 
knowledge of the gospel among pagan nations, give very little 
promise of soon evangelizing the world ; while the assimilation 
of the Church to the world continues to be quite as rapid as 



OF GOD IN WHICH MAN AVAS CREATED. 65 

the conversion of pagans to Christian morality. As long as 
so great a portion of the best talents, agencies and means of 
the Church are wasted in creating, propagating and defending 
such inexplicable human dogmas, theological fictions, and sec- 
tarian distinctions ; and as long as a system of ever so highly 
refined transcendental materialism is substituted as a preached 
gospel, instead of the great Bible facts, that every fallen 
creature is the sole author of his own sins, and that the per- 
fect, all-sufiicient and infinite provision of the higher law, in 
the person and work of Jesus Christ, when practically be- 
lieved, must necessarily and naturally constitute the salvation 
of every sinner that believes ; that is, as long as the present 
supernatural materialism, or physical force, is the fashionable 
substitute for the simple power of God which Paul preached 
without fear or shame, we may expect the world to continue 
as it was, and generally has been for fourteen centuries past. 
And that the true Church and simple gospel of Christ will be 
driven from the wealthy seats of human power, civilization 
and refinement by the conventional influences and ecclesias- 
tical tyranny of corrupted Christianity, as the pilgrim fathers 
were driven across the Atlantic, to seek shelter in this recently 
savage wilderness. 

6th. We may also infer from the truths presented in this 
discussion, another important fact, which must, more or less, 
qualify all the theological knowledge attainable by man while 
in the flesh. It is the fact, that all our theology or knowledge 
of God is subsequent to, derived from, and dependent upon, 
our previous anthropology, or knowledge of our own human 
nature, its endowments and acquisitions. The moral endow- 
ments, susceptibilities, or attributes, which constitute the im- 
age of God, in which man was created, and which also con- 
stitute the entire and only real manhood of the human animal, 
we have in perfect personal unity, with a physical organiza- 
tion, or animal nature. And this living soul, with all its God- 
given moral susceptibilities, and spiritual endowments, is per- 
fectly dependent upon the locomotion of the animal organs of 
sensation for every mental feeling, emotion, sensation, or im- 
pression ; that is, dependent for all the materials of knowl- 



GQ AlSTTHPvOPOLOGY : OR, THE IMAGE 

edge wliicli the soul ever does, or can attain in the present 
life. The knowledge of himself, of his own existence and en- 
dowments, in the case of every intellect, must necessarily pre- 
cede all possible knowledge of any thing else. He must exist 
and must be conscious of his own existence as an individual 
being, distinct from all other beings ; and his intellectual en- 
dowments, or susceptibility of acquiring and receiving knowl- 
edge, must have begun to be developed before it is possible 
for him to know the existence or the qualities, relations or 
endowments of any other substantive existence. This knowl- 
edge of self-existence, and of self-endowments, is acquired by 
every human intellect intuitively ; but only as the immediate 
consequence of the contact, of his physical organs of sensation 
with some other substantive being. Consciousness of self- 
existence is the first perception, in the order of nature, of 
every perceptive being. Knowledge of the existence of some 
other substantiate being, in contradistinction from himself, 
must be the next. 

The knowledge of God as a universal, first cause, or Creator 
of all things, must, therefore, necessarily be preceded by a 
practical knowledge of his own causality, or his ability to pro- 
duce changes, acquired by actual experiment in confirmation 
of the intuitive axiom, that every change must be preceded 
by an adequate cause. This perception, or consciousness of 
ability to produce changes, or of being himself endowed with 
actual causality, as an essential constituent of his own nature, 
is the germ or ovary in every human intellect, of all his 
knowledge of a universal first cause or Creator. By multiply- 
ing and extending this notion of causality, thus acquired, to 
every conceivable change, and every finite existence, and by 
abstracting from it all limitation and imperfection w^e attain 
our only conception and knowledge of the supreme Creator of 
all things ; a Being of infinite physical power, ability, or 
causality. In the same manner, by extending his own intui- 
tive perception of his ability to acquire and create knowledge, 
man acquires the conception of an omniscient Being or an in- 
telligent Spirit of infinite wisdom. The ideas of omniscience, 
and of infinite wisdom, necessarily involve each other. But 



OF GOD IX WHICH ^lAX "WAS CHEATED. 67 

before any human intellect can form any conception of a 
supreme moral Governor of the universe, his own moral sus- 
ceptibilities, which constitute the image of God, in which he 
was created, must have begun to be developed, and he must 
have acquired the knowledge of the distinction between right 
and wrong, sin and holiness, by actual experiment, in the in- 
ferior relations that he sustains towards his fellow-creatures. 
This consciousness of personal rightness of moral character, 
thus previously acquired, when extended to all the relations 
between Creator and creatures, enlarged and divested of all 
limitation and imperfection, constitutes the only human con- 
ception of infinite goodness, holiness, or moral rectitude ever 
acquired by human agent in the flesh. Thus, every concep- 
tion of the supreme Being, or of an infinite, self-existent Spirit, 
or of an almighty, infinitely wise and omniscient Creator, or 
of an infinitely good, holy and beneficent moral Sovereign of 
the universe, or of any of his attributes, acquired by any hu- 
man intellect in this life, is created out of, and is derived from, 
and consists of the combinations and modifications of those 
sensations conveyed to the mind by the locomotions of the 
physical organs of animal sensation ; that is, all our theology 
or knowledge of God is dependent upon, derived from, and 
consists of previously acquired Anthropology, modified by 
multiplication and abstraction. This is necessarily true, be- 
cause the living soul, this knowing human agent, now exists 
in an absolutely perfect, personal identity, with this physical 
organization of animal sensation. And no other medium of 
communication or access to the human soul has been created, 
revealed, or discovered. When God created man a living 
soul, he did it by breathing into his nostrils, into his organs 
of sensation, the breath of life. And he taught him knowl- 
edge by presenting the subjects to his organs of sensation. 

But all human beings are created finite, limited agents. 
Their acquisitions of knowledge, their conceptions of things, 
must, therefore, necessarily be finite, limited, and imperfect. 
Even their highest, most extensive, most exalted and perfect 
conceptions of the infinite God, and of any of his essential at- 
tributes, perfections and purposes, must be infinitely inade- 



G8 anthropology: or, the image 

quale, imperfect, and defective. When, therefore, young 
theologians make dogmatical affirmations concerning the di- 
vine essence, the divine nature, or substantive existence of 
God, or concerning the attributes, the perfections and pur- 
poses of God, and then undertake to reason and construct 
theories from these dogmas, they are very liable to err, and 
to fall into gross absurdities and contradictions. And, gen- 
erally, they thus err, by carrying the axioms of physical 
science into their theological and moral reasoning ; or by 
predicating the accidents of material, finite, created beings, of 
the spiritual, the infinite and self-existent Being. A very clear 
and instructive illustration of this kind of error we have in 
the affirmation which we often hear and read, and sometimes 
find in the symbols of faith, of Christian churches, '' That the 
living and true God exists in three persons." Here numerical 
distinction and personality are predicated of the divine es- 
sence, or of the substantive existence of the Deity. But 
numerical distinction is an accident of finite, created sub- 
stances only. An infinite, eternal Spirit, essence or substance, 
is a perfect lanity, an absolute identity, an indivisibility. All 
the numerical distinctions in the world can not convey to a 
human intellect the least conception of any distinction or var- 
iety in an infinite, eternal Spirit. And personality never 
qualifies substantive being of any kind ; and never expresses 
or conveys any meaning when predicated of a substantive 
being, either finite or infinite, material or spiritual. It is a 
contrivance, or variation of human language, to exj)ress or 
distinguish varieties among the relations of moral agents, both 
human and divine. Yet out of this theological fiction have 
grown all the errors, absurdities, contradictions, controversies 
and contention about the trinity, which have disturbed the 
Church and the world for ages. 

A similar illustration is given in the dogma "That God 
hath preordained whatsoever comes to pass." But there can 
be no before nor after to an eternal purpose. The fore and 
aft, when used in reference to the divine purpose, will or 
mind, are intended only to describe the method in which we 
are obliged to conceive of it, and the order in which we are 



OF GOD IX WIIICTI MAX AVAS CKKATED. 69 

obliged to arrange or think of its relations. But God's eter- 
nal purpose is an eternal and unchangeable unity. Among 
the comings-to-pass are a great many sins, and a great deal 
of consequent misery. But for an infinitely good, holy or 
righteous Sovereign to decree, will or purpose the existence 
of sin, or its consequent misery, involves a positive and plain 
contradiction, an obvious absurdity, and an infinite falsehood. 
An infinitely holy being can sustain but one relation to sin 
and its consequent misery : that is the relation of infinite op- 
position, or infinite antagonism, both to the existence of sin 
and of all its malignant consequences. And this infinite an- 
tagonism to the existence of sin and all its influences, is the 
grand theme of all the revelations of God to man since he 
created him a living soul. His positive decree, forbidding 
the existence of sin in any form whatever, is repeated a thou- 
sand times in the volume of revelation. Yet, from this ro- 
mance of the imagination originates the subject, and all the 
militant machinery, of the conflict of ages, between Calvinists 
and Armenians. 

Yth. In the light of this subject we may form some correct, 
though very inadequate, conceptions of the retributions of 
God's moral government over the children of men. That is, 
of the rewards of obedience, and the punishments of disobe- 
dience, which human agents may expect in the future state 
of retribution. This is a subject concerning which a variety 
of conflicting opinions are entertained in the world and in 
the Church, and even among religious teachers ; and not a 
little materialism is often mingled in the descriptions, both 
of the future rewards of the righteous and punishments of the 
wicked. It is highly important, therefore, that correct views 
on this topic should be propagated. 

We have endeavored to show, in this discussion, that those 
moral susceptibilities which constitute the image of God in 
which man was created, and the real manhood of human 
agents, are as indestructible and as imperishable as the im- 
mortal soul itself. Among these immortal endowments is 
the susceptibility of perceiving, appreciating, and perfectly 
enjoying the moral beauty, excellence, and utility of infinite 



To ANTHROPOLOGY : OR, THE IMAGE 

goodness, holiness, or conformity to the law of moral recti- 
tude : and also the ability of perceiving, appreciating, hating, 
abhorring, and loathing the moral deformity, ugliness, and 
degradation of sin or transgression. When, therefore, the 
living soul of the believer is divested of the physical organi- 
zation of the depraved, sickly animal body, and is furnished 
with, or clothed upon, with that incorruptible, spiritual ma- 
chinery or building for the further employment and develop- 
ment of his immortal endowments, which, saith the apostle, 
we know is prepared of God for us, when our earthly house 
of this tabernacle is dissolved, then the perfectly renovated 
believer will be a pure spiritual being, .perfect in holiness, and 
capable of enjoying the infinite blessedness resulting from the 
favor, the love and the fullness of God, and the friendship, 
esteem and relationship of all good and holy beings of every 
order ; and also capable of enjoying all the happiness result- 
ing from the sure consciousness of perfect moral beauty, love- 
Hness, and worthiness in his OAvn person, of the esteem and 
friendship of all holy beings. Thus the re^vards of the re- 
deemed, their future bliss and their perfect iiappiness, will 
consist of moral enjoyments, of spiritual peace, pleasure, and 
felicity, constituting fullness of joy and pleasure at the right 
hand (that is, in the perfect favor) of God for ever more. 

Such is the gift of God, the eternal life, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. All materialism, all physical pleasure, all 
animal enjoyment, all sensual gratification, are necessarily ex- 
cluded ; because there will be no physical organs to be ex- 
cited, no material organs of sensitive pleasure, no animal in- 
stincts, appetites or passions to be gratified. The subject of 
reward will be a pure spirit, in his entire nature, person, en- 
dowments and susceptibilities. The ground, the primary 
reason or proximate cause of his felicity, will be seen in his 
perfect moral character, which is formed by doing the truth. 
For though his blessedness will be all of grace, his redemp- 
tion, sanctification, perfect moral character and entire salva- 
tion, will be the fruit of God's infinite mercy and free gift in 
Jesus Christ ; and though no saint in glory will ever be able 
to cease ascribing his whole salvation and happiness to grace 



OF GOD IX WHICH Mx\N AVxVS CKEATED. 71 

alone, yet every redeemed soul in heaven will possess in his 
own personal character, contracted by his own voluntary 
agency, a perfect merit of congruity, rendering it right, just 
and equitable for God the moral Governor thus to reward the 
believer in his son Jesus Christ. 

Nor will the happiness of the redeemed consist at all in 
mere indolent, passive enjoyment, or reception of good from 
other beings ; but, being perfectly qualified and capacitated 
to become ministering spirits, as the angels of light now are, 
they will be for ever employed, in perfect obedience to the 
will of God, the higher law, in doing good, creating and dif- 
fusing happiness to other sentient beings. Their happiness 
will, therefore, be divine, holy enjoyment, because, like the 
infinite blessedness of God, it will consist very much in the 
pleasure of doing good and imparting happiness to others. 
Their own agency will be included in the cause of their own 
felicity. " And in keeping of them," the statutes or judgments 
of the Lord, " there is great reward." Ps. xix. 11. 

With respect to those who die in their sins, impenitent, 
unreconciled to God and his perfect law, being divested of all 
material substance, and still retaining the image of God in 
which they were created, they also will not only be able to 
see, understand, appreciate and sympathise with, but it will 
be an unchangeable and unavoidable necessity of their immor- 
tal nature, to see in the light of eternal truth their own sinful 
character, in all its moral deformity, odiousness and degrada- 
tion, and to hate, abhor, and despise themselves for contract- 
ing such a character. They will also be under an unavoidable 
necessity of seeing and understanding perfectly their own na- 
tures, endowments and susceptibilities ; that they have always 
existed in the image of God, constituting in their very natures 
a perfect ability to do all that the law of God ever required 
of them. That is, to contract a right moral character, and 
secure their own happiness ; or, after having sinned, to re- 
pent, believe, make a new heart, and do all that the gospel 
of Christ requires, to secure their salvation from sin and 
misery ; that they have always exercised j)erfect liberty and 
freedom of choice ; that their entire moral character and con- 



V2 anthropology: or, the image, etc. 

sequent destiny are both alike, of their own choosing and cre- 
ating ; that neither their character nor destiny are, in any 
sense, the consequence of God's purpose, voUtion, permission, 
consent or agency, but entirely of their own procuring. " Oh 
Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help." 
IIos. xiii. 9. 

" The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." It 
executes its penal sanction by its own omnipotent moral in- 
fluence, employing no agency or influence but the moral en- 
dowments of the transgressor himself, which constitute the 
image of God in which he was created. God has never put 
forth the least degree of his physical power to punish an im- 
penitent soul in the future state, and never will. The subjects 
of moral government, in the state of retribution, are spiritual 
beings exclusively. No influence can aflect them, for weal or 
w^oe, but the moral influence of truth or falsehood. The light 
of eternal truth, beaming from the character of God, illus- 
trated in the higher law, will be the proximate cause, the 
efficient instrumentality, both of the happiness of the redeemed 
and the torments of the wricked. And this fact will for ever 
illustrate the absolute perfection, the infinite glory and sublime 
beauty of God's moral government, above all that human in- 
tellect in the flesh can conceive. 



II. 



TRINITY OF PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD. INCARNA- 
TION OF DEITY. 



The doctrine of a trinity of persons in the Godhead appears 
to be one of the earhest and most universally diffused and 
acknowledged religious dogmas of the human family. It 
seems to have been an article of belief in every system of 
religion of which we have any authentic or credible history. 
Every system of paganism, idolatry, or superstition, which 
has been adopted or practiced by any considerable portion of 
mankmd, has included among its credenda, or things to be 
believed, a triad of personal agents or relations, constituting 
a monad, or one identical being, which they w^orshipped and 
honored as the supreme Sovereign or first cause, or as the 
Deity, the best and highest of all beings. The probable 
reason of this universal belief of a trinity of persons in a God- 
head is, that it has been found impossible to conceive or de- 
scribe intelligibly any method by w^hich a righteous and 
beneficent moral governor can save a rebellious subject from 
the consequences of his rebellion, without introducing a second 
and third person into the transaction. It is for this cause 
that the Christian, or true system of religion for fallen men, 
has necessarily from the beginning, or first entrance of sin 
into the world, included the doctrine of a trinity of persons 
in the Godhead ; and all sincere w^orshippers of the one only 
living and true God find it necessary, in performing pubhc 
social worship to the one God, to introduce three personalities 
into their service, and ascribe divine attributes and pay divine 
honor to three distinct persons. From this universal necessity, 
even the modern unitarians, of the most hberal and improved 
4 (73) 



14 TPJNITY OF PEESONS IX THE GODHEAD. 

description, have not been able entirely to free themselves. 
But notwithstanding the universal reception of the doctrine 
in one shape or another, perhaj^s no religious dogma, true or 
false, has ever been the subject of more controversy, or been 
the occasion of more bitter, inveterate and bloody conflicts 
among civilized and Christian communities. The cause of 
this is most probably the fact that this doctrine of the trinity 
is fundamental and absolutely essential to Christianity. So 
much so, that when this doctrine is repudiated or expunged 
from the system, not a vestige of Christianity remains ; and 
all the moral and religious teaching of Jesus Christ, and his 
apostles and prophets, is converted into a collection of ab- 
surdity, contradiction and mysticism ; and all knowledge and 
hope of salvation from sin and its consequences are obliterated 
and extinguished. No wonder that Christians should con- 
tend earnestly, and even to blood, for the privilege of cher- 
ishing the belief of this essential doctrine. 

The present condition, character, and constant fluctuations 
of opinions of every sect or community who have undertaken 
to controvert this doctrine, fully illustrate and confirm the 
truth of this cause of contention, and show that this is an 
essential and fundamental doctrine of Christianity. 

But my object in introducing the subject here is not to 
enter into any controversy for or against any opinion in rela- 
tion to the doctrine of the trinity. I shall not even attempt 
to prove the truth of the doctrine ; because no person of com- 
mon sense can receive and read the Bible, as a revelation from 
God, and doubt it. The Bible is the Christian's infallible au- 
thority and rule of faith. And the doctrine of the trinity of 
persons in the Godhead is a doctrine of pure revelation ; and 
the proof of it has been so often collated and expounded by 
able and more learned intellects, that for me to attempt any 
improvement or addition would be vain and superfluous. 

But my sole object is, to divest the subject of those absurd 
dogmas of mysticism, w^hich the theological speculators have 
cast around it, so as to leave the plain, simple Bible truth of the 
doctrine, open to the perceptions and understanding of all com- 
mon sense persons who wish to understand it, and w^ho are will- 



INCAKXATION OF DEITY. 75 

ing to bestow the necessary attention and thought for that pur- 
pose. I beheve that the principal cause of doubt, uncertainty 
and infidelity in relation to the subject, among common peo- 
ple, is the fog of mysticism, which their learned teachers and 
controversialists have cast over the doctrine. Those teachers 
who believe and defend the doctrine, when they have stated 
what they suppose we are bound to believe, as the revealed 
truth in relation to it, proceed to tell us that this subject lis a 
profound mystery of the divine nature, which of course can 
not be explained or understood by any human intellect, be- 
cause it is entirely above and beyond the sphere of human 
conception or intellect. Those teachers and writers, who dis- 
believe and ridicule the doctrine, after perverting and distort- 
ing the opinions of the orthodox, (so called,) tell us that the 
whole doctrine of a trinity of persons in the Godhead, is a 
perfect absurdity, a contradiction, and a ridiculous super- 
stition. The plain common sense, unlearned hearer naturally 
retires from the teaching of either class, with the impression 
that it is perfectly useless for him to think or inquire on 
the subject. He very naturally and correctly infers, that any 
intelligent or practical faith on the question is, in his con- 
dition, utterly impossible. He either dismisses the subject 
wholly, as a topic utterly above his conception, and out of his 
reach ; or, he concurs with one class of teachers, by assenting 
to the doctrine, with a blind know-nothmg and do-nothing 
faith ; or, with the other class, he dismisses the subject with 
contempt as unworthy of occupying his superior intellect. 

But, if the doctrine be true, and if it be a fundamental ar- 
ticle of the Christian system, as it must necessarily be, if true, 
then it can not be an inexplicable mystery, but a plainly re- 
vealed truth. It must be a truth made plain and intelligible 
to the understanding of those to whom and for whose benefit 
and salvation it has been revealed. Any other supposition 
involves a contradiction. If the doctrine of a trinity of per- 
sons in the Godhead be not a truth, it certainly furnishes no 
occasion for ridicule, or perversion and distortion of opinions. 
Error, on so important and grave a subject, is too solemn to 
be trifled with, and too dangerous to risk the perversion of 



76 TFvIXITY OF TEKSOXS IX THE GODHEAD. 

opinions. If, however, the subject be carefully analyzed and 
divested of extraneous matter, of mere human invention or 
inference, I apprehend there will be found no great difficulty 
for those who are wilHng to do their own thinking on the sub- 
ject, to understand and believe this great mystery of Godliness. 

But in order to clear away the human interpolations from 
the subject, it will be necessary, 

Ifet. To ascertain the true meaning of the term Godhead. 
2d. To define precisely the nature and extent of personality. 
3d. To show in what manner and for Avhat purpose personality 
is predicated of the Godhead ; and what is the extent of its 
meaning w^lien so predicated. 

1st. What is the true meaning of the term Godhead ? By 
many writers this word has been understood and used as 
synonymous with Deity. They have used it as the proper 
name of the Supreme Being, and as including in its meaning 
not merely the substantive existence of such a Being, but 
also the numerical quality of that Being. They use the term 
Godhead when they mean to express or convey the same idea 
as when they use the word God in its highest sense, or as 
when they use the word Deity or Supreme Being ; meaning 
the infinite omniscient, omnipresent, self-existent, first Cause. 
But I apprehend that this is an improper use of the term. 
There is in every cultivated language a certain class of words 
which are used only to express relations, or the circumstances 
and accidents of relations, but never to express things that 
have substantive or independent existence. But the relations 
Avhich this class of words exj^ress, instantly and necessarily 
suggest the existence of the subjects which sustain these re- 
lations. Loose and inaccurate thinkers sometimes include 
the subject of a relation in the meaning of the w^ord, which, 
w^hen properly used, signifies only a certain relation. And 
afterward using the word in this extended sense, they may 
involve themselves in solecisms and absurdities, and be led 
into gross errors and useless controversy. For example, the 
word parent is always used, when correctly used, to express 
a certain definite relation, and never to express a real substan- 
tive existence. The term ofi*spring is equally definite, and 



INOARXATIOX OF DEITY. 77 

limited in signification to the corelative of parent. But if a 
speaker or writer should in his mind indude the subjects of 
this relation in the meaning of these relative words, and then 
begin to reason with these terms, affirming that wherever 
this relation exists, certain duties and obligations necessarily 
result, and the subjects of the relation are very sinful and 
guilty, and deserve punishment, if they neglect these duties, 
and do not fulfil these obligations. This affirmation is a yery 
solemn and imj^ortant truth in relation to human parents and 
oflfspring, because they are moral agents and subjects of moral 
government. But the same relation of parent and ofiTspring 
is common with every species of animal organization, as truly 
as with human parents and ofifepring of the genus man. It 
would, however, seem rather singular and out of place to hear 
a grave divine arguing the duties and obligations of a horse, 
an ass, and a mule from this relation, as it sometimes exists 
among them ; or charging them with sin and guilt for neg- 
lecting their duty. The fact is, that using words in a loose, 
undefined signification, exposes a speaker to commit great 
absurdities in reasoning. 

But the sustaining of one relation by any individual does 
not exclude that individual from sustaining other and entirely 
difierent relations to the same, or to dififerent substantive 
beings. The being which sustains the relation of father may 
at the same time sustain a variety of very dififerent relations 
to the same, or any number of dififerent beings. He may be 
a supreme magistrate, a teacher, a physician, a merchant ; and 
the being, or beings, which sustain the corelations of sons, 
may also sustain the corelations of subject, of pupil, of pa- 
tient, etc. ; and the ascription of these dififerent corelations 
to the beings between which they exist, implies no difiference 
or variety in the substance of either subject of these relations, 
nor of the manner of their subsistence. N'or does it involve 
any reference to their substantive identities, or to the unity 
or plurality of the parties of these relations. We never dream 
of any impropriety, inconsistency or absurdity, in using the 
words which signify these dififerent relations, and their various 
circumstances, when speaking of the same identical being. 



7s TEIXITY OF PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD. 

These relative terms have no reference to substantive being, 
or to numerical difference of substantive being ; but they 
properly and exclusively refer to relations of things, and the 
various circumstances of such relations. A single individual 
may sustain a number of different personal relations, and half 
a dozen or more individual persons may be united in sustain- 
ing the same identical personal relation. 

Therefore, in determining the signification and precise ex- 
tent of meaning and appropriate use of the term Godhead, 
we must be governed by the same principles of interpretation 
which limit the signification of all the same class of words ex- 
clusively to the relations of things. Of this class of words are 
such terms as governorship, captaincy, presidency, conductor- 
ship, superintendency, dictatorship, maidenhood. Lordship, 
and Godhead. Now, we may use or understand any of these 
words as expressing a variety of personal relations to any 
number of other individuals ; but we can not properly, or 
intelligibly, use them to describe the mode of existence of the 
beings who sustain these relations. Nor will it vary the sig- 
nification of the term, or involve any impropriety, though we 
should represent two or five personal relations, or personal 
individuals, as sustaining the same identical relation. The 
judgeship may be invested in one, two, three, or more indi- 
viduals. The superintendency may include the agency and 
labors of a number of individuals. Or a single individual 
may act in a variety of different personal relations, in per- 
forming the duties of a single general relation. Thus the 
father of a family, in performing the duties of that relation, 
may find it convenient and necessary to assume the relation 
of physician, teacher, guardian or agent, and to perform the 
personal duties pertaining to these relations in his own per- 
son. Perhaps he may find it necessary to take another agent 
into personal unity with himself, to enable him legally and 
rightly to perform some of the personal duties of these sub- 
ordinate relations. In like manner the one living and true 
God may sustain the various different relations of Creator, 
supreme moral Governor, Preserver, Saviour, Mediator, Re- 
deemer, Sanctifier, Judge and Benefactor, to myriads of dif- 



IXCARNATION OF DEITY. 79 

ferent subjects of his moral kingdom, without involviug any 
denial of liis perfect unity and identity. And this one God 
may hnd it necessary, or judge it expedient, to take into per- 
sonal unity with himself another agent of a different nature, 
in order to perform in the most perfect manner some of the 
duties resulting from these relations, without implying any 
plurality in his being, or any variety in the manner of his 
subsistence. ]N^ow, the word Godhead is a very convenient 
term to express, collectively, all these relations of God to 
fallen men, without reference to any other circumstance of 
his existence. We may presume, therefore, that the word 
was framed for that very purpose : and that when applied to 
any other purpose, or its meaning extended to the substantive 
existence of the Deity, or to any circumstance of his existence, 
besides these relations, it is improperly used, and constitutes 
a solecism. 

2d. We may, therefore, proceed to the next topic of dis- 
cussion, viz : The nature and extent of personality ; of what 
subjects may it be predicated, and how does it qualify such 
subjects ? Human language must sometimes vary in signifi- 
cation, according to the varying natures and circumstances 
of things which it is used to describe. Human language is 
finite, and words are limited in number, but things and their 
relations, circumstances and accidents, are infinite. When 
we describe things and their relations and accidents, we are 
necessarily obliged often to use the same word in a variety 
of different shades of meaning. These varying shades of sig- 
nification are sometimes indicated by varying the form of the 
word, and are sometimes left to be inferred from the circum- 
stances of the subject spoken of at the time. 

The word person, or personality, in its various grammatical 
forms, as noun, adjective, verb, participle and adverb, has a 
variety of shades of meaning, according with these various 
forms, and also a similar variety, resulting from the nature 
and circumstances of the subject. When we say of any par- 
ticular man, he is the person, we predicate personality of that 
man. We use the word in its substantive form, and its most 
common and primary signification. But in what does the 



80 TRINITY OF PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD. 

personality of the man consist, or what constitutes him a per- 
son ? Not his substantive existence. For rocks, mountains, 
rivers and oceans have substantive existence, but they have 
not personality. Nor does his fearful and wonderful organ- 
ization, curiously wrought by infinite wisdom, constitute him 
a person. The tree, the plant, the flower, the horse, the but- 
terfly, the oyster, and ten thousand other curious organizations 
display the wisdom of the divine Architect, but have no per- 
sonality. Nor does his vitality as a living, active and intelli- 
gent being, his capability of originating motion, acquiring 
knowledge, or causing change, give him personality. The 
elephant, the ox, the ass, the beaver, the ant, and a thousand 
other animal species, are intelligent, acquire knowledge, orig- 
inate changes, and are, in their own limited spheres, real 
causes, as truly as God is, in the infinite sphere. Many of 
them, in their own sphere, show far quicker perception, su- 
perior knowledge and more skill than human animals, in the 
flesh, ever attain. ''The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass 
his master's crib : but Israel doth not know, my people doth 
not consider." Yet none of all these animated organizations 
are ever invested with personality, or are called persons, either 
by God in his word, or by men in any of the relations of civ- 
ilized human society. 

We must, therefore, ascend to the ultimate and highest en- 
dowment of human nature ; that endowment, which allied 
man at first with his maker, and which constituted the image 
and likeness of God in which man was originally created. 
" So God created man in his own image, in the image of God 
created he him ; male and female created he them." To find 
the personality of the man, we must rise to the moral sense : 
we must look to the moral susceptibilities, which liken him to 
God his Maker, and constitute him a subject of moral govern- 
ment. Man, by his moral endowments, is distinguished from 
and raised, in the scale of existence, above the mere animal 
and intellectual beings, and stands next to the angels ; being 
with them a pure, mortal, indestructible spirit. While at the 
same time, in his physical or material part, he is on a level 
with all sensitive animal existence. 



INCARXATION OF DEITY. 81 

By these moral endowments he is rekted to God, to the 
higher law, or law of God, to God's moral kingdom, and to 
the interests and retributions of that kingdom. His person- 
ality is therefore found, only in these relations, which as a 
moral agent and subject of moral government, he sustains to 
God, to the law of God, and to his fellow subjects, of God's 
universal kingdom. Now, the variety of relations which God 
sustains towards the myriads of subjects of his government, 
and which his subjects sustain towards each other, and the 
things around them, are innumerable. And the duties and 
obligations resulting from these relations are also innumerable, 
and as various as they are numerous. The personalities, like- 
wise, which may be j^redicated of the subjects of these rela- 
tions, are just as numerous and as various as the relations 
from which they result. For example : take the first and most 
important relation ever existing in the human family, consti- 
tuted by God himself, and made the basis and pattern of all 
other relations of human society. After the institution of the 
marriage relation Adam sustained a personality, in that rela- 
tion, totally difierent and diverse from what was possible an- 
tecedent to that institution. The personal duties and obliga- 
tions, the personal benefits and enjoyments resulting from the 
relation were new and dififerent ; and antecedent to that rela- 
tion were absolutely impossible ; and but for the institution 
of that relation, had for ever remained impossible. Yet the 
personality created by this relation involved two individual 
substantive beings, who in all other relations were two dis- 
tinct persons. The personal duties and obligations could 
neither exist or be fulfilled, but by a perfect unity of two in- 
dividual moral agents, who in other relations were two dis- 
tinct persons. Each agent, in other relations, may have a 
separate personal individuality, while the two, in this particu- 
lar relation, constitute an individual personality, which could 
not exist, but by a perfect personal union, both moral and 
physical of the two individuals. " They shall be one flesh." 
That is, one individual person, in this relation, as long as the 
relation exists. 

When we say of a particular man, this is the person who 
4* 



82 TKINITY OF PERSONS IX THE GODHEAD. 

wrote that book, we predicate personality of that man. The 
personality which we mention is found in the relation of 
authorship which the man sustains to that book. His agency 
in making the book, created, or brought into existence his 
personal relationship to it; and being the sole author, the 
whole responsibility in the case attaches to his personal rela- 
tion to the book. If it was a good and useful book, the whole 
merit of its production belongs to him. If it was a bad book, 
or libel against his neighbor, injurious to the morals, or wealth, 
or health of the community, he is alone responsible for the 
damage : because his personal relation to it is a unity, a single 
individuality. 

But here is another book, the authorship of which he shared 
with two or five other writers ; they each contributing an 
equal share in the work, and being perfectly agreed and united 
in the production. Here, then, we have a single personal re- 
lationship constituted by the unity of several agents in the 
production of the same results. In that one relation they con- 
stitute a single personality. And yet in other relations each 
retains his own distinct individuality. No one of these indi- 
viduals was author of that book, or sustained that relationship 
to it, and yet all of them as an aggregate sustained that rela- 
tion to it. This was a jDcrsonal relation, because it involved 
personal obligation ; the action that created it was either right 
or wrong, the production was either good or bad ; each indi- 
vidual was responsible for the production, but the respon- 
sibility was a joint responsibility. The personality predicable 
in this case, was therefore in one aspect of the case, a single 
personality, in an other aspect, it was plural. In reference to 
one subject of the corelation, the personality may be a single 
individuality; in reference to the other subject of the relation, 
it may be a plurality. 

An individual substantive being, or moral agent may sus- 
tain in different relations a variety of personalities ; and a 
large number of agents may sustain a single personality, which 
could never exist in the case of an individual. Every business 
firm, of two or more human agents, every joint stock associ- 
ation for any purpose, every corporate body constituted by 



IXCARXATIOX OF DEITY. 83 

human laws, or instituted by divine appointment, as the fom- 
ily, and the Church, every court constituted of more than one 
magistrate, every legislative body, every legally organized 
civil association of accountable beings, as a town, city, state, 
or nation, is a person in the literal and primary meaning of 
the term. Each corporate or associated body, whether con- 
sisting of two individual agents, or of two hundred, or of mil- 
lions, is described in the word of God, and treated in the 
providential government of God over this world, as an indi- 
vidual personality, in all the relations, duties, obligations and 
responsibilities involved in the association. In all human 
languages the various grammatical forms of all w^ords imply- 
ing, or suggesting personality, are applied to these corporate 
bodies in the singu ar number. In all legal transactions they 
are regarded and spoken of as single individual persons. In 
all the moral relations and judicial or criminal proceedings, 
and in all commercial transactions of human society, these 
corporations, in the numerous relations they sustain to other 
persons and things, are regarded and spoken of as individual 
persons. The proper names, by which they are severally de- 
signated, are used in the singular number, just as the proper 
names of single men and women are. And the various ac- 
tions, interests, gains and losses of these persons of multitude 
are described, as those of individuals in the smgular number. 
Many of the most important relations that exist among human 
agents in this life are created by these voluntary associations. 
Many of the most important duties and obligations that rest 
upon human agents, in this state of probation and mutual de- 
pendence, result from these associations and the personal rela- 
tions created thereby : which duties and obligations never 
could exist or be fulfilled but for the creation of these artificial 
personalities. The most important, difficult and delicate du- 
ties which men ever perform to their fellow men, the most 
solemn and responsible obligations ever imposed on human 
beings, invoMng the highest, most important and dearest in- 
terests of individuals and communities are created by and de- 
pend on these artificial personalities. Take for example the 
institution of trial by a jury of his peers, w^hich every man in 



84 TRIXITV OF PERSONS IX THE GODHEAD. 

this favored land boasts of as his personal right and highest 
civil privilege. When such a jury is constituted a most re- 
sponsible, efficient and useful individual personality is created. 
But antecedent to the perfect organization of the jury, and 
the legal qualification of every member of it, not one of the 
duties, obligations, or responsibilities incident to, and most 
solemnly binding on that organized personal agent, have any 
existence at all. Not one individual, nor all the individuals 
collectively, who compose the jury, though ever so willing 
and desirous to do so, can perform the least act or fulfil the 
least duty or obligation of this personal agent before their 
perfect organization. Should any or all of them attempt to 
do any such thing, their action would be a perfect nullity in 
relation to every party and thing interested in the case. If 
this organization be broken by the loss of a single member, 
the personality ceases to exist, and all the personal relations, 
duties, obligations and responsibilities coexisting with it are 
annihilated. 

We perceive, therefore, that personality is not essential to, 
and does not necessarily belong to substantive existence, 
and is not identical with actual being or existence. Per- 
sonality in itself has no independent substantive being, any 
w^here, or in any case. It is a mere accident of a certain ge- 
nus of substantive existences, viz., of that genus of substant- 
ive beings Avhich we call moral agents, including the moral 
Sovereign of the universe, and all the subjects of his moral 
government. Personality is found only in the relations of 
such substantive beings as have permanent or continuous ex- 
istence in themselves ; who to their substantive being and their 
intellectual endowments have added a moral sense, or a sus- 
ceptibility of distinguishing between right and wrong, in 
the high and moral sense, of acting under the motive influence 
of the higher law, and of thus forming a moral character. 
Only in the relations of such moral beings as involve obliga- 
tions, can we conceive of personality ; and to such relations 
exclusively can we ascribe personality in the literal sense. 
Divest a human agent of those relations and susceptibilities, 
which involve moral obligations and accountability, and you 



IXCAKXATIOX OF DEITY. 85 

have divested him completely of j^ersonality, and of every 
thing that distinguishes him from mere irrational brute ani- 
mals, or that can constitute any reason or furnish any ground 
for calling him a person rather than calling any mule a person. 
I know that illiterate, careless thinkers and talkers, who never 
analyze their thoughts, are in the habit of confounding per- 
sonaHty with substantive existence, or with sensitive intellec- 
tual being. But such persons, in every such case, practice an 
illusion on their own intellectual perceptions, just as children 
do when they imagine that color is some material substance, 
or some thing, or at least that it adheres in, and is, therefore, 
essential to material substances. But a A^ery little common sense 
observation and reflection, on what passes before their eyes 
daily, teaches them that color has no material existence at all, 
but is found alone in the animal sensations produced through 
the organs of sight, by the varying relations which material 
light assumes to these organs as its motions and positions are 
A^aried. Exclude all material light from material substances 
and they are as destitute of color, as if color had ncA^er been 
conceived of in the uniA^erse. Deprive the most sprightly 
intellectual being of the organs of sight, and to him color 
ceases to exist. If he never had the use of the organs of 
sight, all the human intelligence, learning, and skill in the 
world cannot giA^e him the least conception of the nature 
of color. And in like manner, abstract from your concep- 
tion of any intellectual being the idea of moral suscepti- 
bilities, obligations, and accountability, and you have divested 
that being of all personality. 

We may, indeed, by a figure of rhetoric, and the help of imag- 
ination, clothe the whole material system, animal, v^egetable, 
and inorganic, Avith personality. But to do this, we must first 
imagine them endowed with the moral sense and rationality of 
accountable agents, and ascribe to them the appropriate motions 
and actions of moral agents. The rhetorical figures of personifi- 
cation and prosopopoeia are often used by the inspired writers, 
and constitute the chief beauty and sublimity of sacred poetry. 
But the use of them always furnishes full confirmation of the 
fact, that all personality necessarily implies the pre-existence of 



86 TllIXITY OF TEESOXS IX THE GODIIExVD. 

moral susceptibilities, relations, and obligations as the subject 
or basis of personality, without which personahty can not 
exist. Thus the Psalmist mvests the whole material system 
of things Avith jiersonality, and organizes them into an enrapt 
choir of worshipers praising God. '' The heavens declare the 
glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy-work. 
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth 
knowledge, etc." — Ps. xix. 1-6. And again, "- Praise the 
Lord from the earth ye dragons, and all ye deeps ; Fire and 
liail ; snow and vapors ; stormy wind fulfilling his word ; 
Mountains and all hills ; fruitful trees and all cedars ; Beasts 
and all cattle ; creeping things and flying fowl ; Kings of the 
earth and all people ; princes and all judges of the earth, etc." 
— Ps. cxlviii. 7-13. 

But all these mere things, in order to personify them or in- 
vest them with imaginary personality, must be animated with 
intellectual life and moral relations, endowments, emotions, 
and obligations. They must, in imagination, -be supposed 
capable of understanding and appreciating the high moral 
motives which are presented to excite them to praise the 
Lord. '' For his name alone is excellent, his glory is above 
the earth and heavens. He also exalteth the horn of his 
people, the praise of all his saints." — v. 14. 

Nothing is personified, even in imagination, till it is invested 
with the susceptibilities, relations and emotions proper and 
peculiar to moral agents. The necessary and unavoidable in- 
ference is, that the personality of God, angels, and men, per- 
tains exclusively to the relations which they mutually sustain 
to each other and to other things in general, as the sovereign 
and supreme Administrator and the subjects of a vast moral 
system. And as these relations are innumerable and of count- 
less varieties, the personalities of moral agents are innumera- 
ble and infinitely various. One individual agent may sustain 
a number of various personalities, just as numerous and as 
difierent from each other as the difierent personal relations he 
sustains, which involve moral obhgation. And any number 
of individual agents, even miUions, may sustain one individual 
personahty, and in that relation constitute a single person ; 



INCAPvXATIOX OF DEITY. 87 

Avhicli person or personality no individual of the number can 
sustain, and which cannot exist at all but by the association 
or combination of that number of individual agents. But 
human language is finite and very limited. It is, therefore, 
impossible to furnish words to designate the infinite variety 
of personalities which moral agents sustain. Nor is there 
any necessity for it. A few general distinctions are sufficient 
to answer the general purposes of human intercourse. The 
grammatical use of personality in the construction of lan- 
guage is sufficiently accommodated by three distinctions, called 
the first, second, and third persons. These three distinctions 
are used both in the singular and plural numbers. One class 
of personalities is distinguished by the name of the relations 
to which they pertain ; as the person of the wife, the husband, 
the parent, the child. In another class they are distinguished 
by the business of the agents to which the personal relations 
belong ; as the person of the physician, the inventor, the 
mechanic, etc-. In another, by the designation of the office 
with which they are associated ; as the person of the presi- 
dent, the emperor, the queen, the bishop, the judge, the gen- 
eral, etc. In histrionic representation, the various personali- 
ties which the actor attempts to exhibit are generally 
designated by the names of the originals. But in the greatest 
number of cases no words are necessary to indicate the per- 
sonal relations, duties, and obligations of the parties con- 
cerned. They are intuitively and necessarily conceived on 
the bare mention or thought of the subjects. Take a single 
phrase of Paul before the court of Areopagus, on Mars Hill, 
and the learned Athenian, and the pagan strangers there con- 
gregated : '^ God that made the world and all things therein." 
'No human intelligent of common sense, on this footstool, can 
think consecutively or speak intelligibly, for five minutes, on 
the subjects presented in that phrase, without conceiving in 
his own mind, or suggesting to his attentive, thoughtful hear- 
ers, a variety of personal relations, obligations, duties, and 
actions which this Creator sustains, owes, and performs to 
the creatures of his power ; that is, a variety of personalities 
sustained and acted out in absolute perfection, by the one 



88 TRINITY OF PERSONS IX THE GODHEAD. 

living and true God, and a like variety of personalities per- 
taining to the relations of every individual subject of his moral 
government in this world. And all these personalities, both of 
the Creator and his moral subjects, are as distinct from each 
other as the persons of any two or more individuals are distinct 
personalities, and as various as the relations, characters, con- 
ditions, and circumstances of the subjects. 

3d. We are now prepared to show in what manner and for 
what purpose personality is predicated of the Godhead, and 
what is the extent of its meaning when so predicated. I 
affirm that there are three persons in the Godhead. I be- 
lieve this proposition as truly and as firmly as I believe my 
own existence. I receive the knowledge of this truth in the 
same manner that I receive the knowledge of my own exist- 
ence ; that is, intuitively and necessarily. I can not avoid 
knowing it and believing it, any more than I can avoid know- 
ing my own existence. The process of acquisition may be a 
few steps longer, but it is the same process in the same direc- 
tion. I am conscious of existing. I am conscious that I can 
not exist without an adequate cause. The only adequate 
cause I can conceive of is a God of infinite wisdom, powder 
and goodness. I have sinned by transgressing the higher 
law ; the law of this infinite Creator and Lord of all. I am 
as necessarily conscious of sin and guilt as I am of existence. 
I know intuitively and necessarily, from my own conscious- 
ness, that this God who made me now sustains various new 
and difierent relations to me, from those he sustained antece- 
dent to my transgression. I can not avoid the consciousness 
of this, more than of my own existence. I am intuitively 
conscious that these new and varied relations are moral rela- 
tions ; that is, relations from which moral obligations and 
duties result, and that personality exclusively belongs to, and 
can be truly predicated only of such relations, duties and ob- 
ligations, and of nothing else. These relations, involving per- 
sonality, personal obligations, duties and actions, I collectively 
designate by the title Godhead. Such is the process by which 
I come to the knowledge and belief of this proposition. But 
this is not the only means of knowing, or the only evidence 



IXCAKXATIOX OF DEITY. 89 

on which to believe this important truth. I find it clearly 
and abundantly taught in the Bible, which is the Avord of 
God ; and I see a thousand facts transpiring in the providen- 
tial irovernment of the world to confirm the word of God and 
the intuitions of human intellect. But the single fact that the 
normal intuitions of all human intellect, and the word of God, 
as recorded in the Bible, perfectly agree and harmonize on 
this and every other topic relating to the nature and character 
of God and his moral government, is sufficient confirmation 
and evidence of the truth of any proposition. 

When, therefore, I affirm that there are three persons in 
the Godhead, I mean to express the notion, or convey the 
idea, that as God sustains a variety of different relations to 
fallen, sinful men, in fulfilling the duties and obligations re- 
sulting from these relations, he in these relations sustains a 
variety of personalities, or that he acts out a variety of per- 
sonalities in the beneficent works he performs toward sinful 
men, and for their benefit. I make no reference, in this af- 
firmation, to God as a substantive existence. I neither men- 
tion nor suggest any numerical distinction of God, the Creator 
and moral Governor of the universe, nor affirm any other fact, 
circumstance or accident of his being, except the single fact 
that he sustains a variety of different relations to sinful men. 
The hearer of my affirmation must immediately infer the ex- 
istence of God, because no relation can exist till subsequent 
to the existence of its subject, and the corelative of that sub- 
ject. God can not sustain the relation of Creator till some 
thing is created, nor till the creature, as subject of the corela- 
tion, exists. When I speak of the relations which God sus- 
tains towards men, under the title of Godhead, what I affirm 
I affirm of these relations, and not of God the antecedent 
subject of them. I know that in this affirmation I impute no 
numerical distinction to God my Creator ; because I know 
that when I use the word Godhead, I mean the relations in 
the concrete which God sustains towards sinful men in the 
flesh. I do not use the word Godhead as a concrete term in 
the logical sense, including the relations God sustains to men, 
and God the subject of these relations, but I use it in the 



90 TEIXITY OF PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD. 

philosophical sense, as including, in its meaning, nothing but 
these relations in the concrete, and abstractly from the sub- 
stantive being or essence of the Deity. I know and believe, 
just as surely and in the same manner (described above) that 
I know my own existence, that the Deity — the infinite, omni- 
present, unchangeable, self-existent and eternal God — is a per- 
fect unity, an unvarying identity, of whom numerical distinc- 
tion can not be predicated but falsely. At the same time I 
infer, intuitively and necessarily, that neither personality nor 
obligation can be predicated of Deity, abstractly from the re- 
lations which he sustains to other beings. When, therefore, 
I predicate personality of God, I must use the Avord God as a 
concrete term, including in its meaning both the Deity and 
the various relations which he sustains toward lost men. But 
I know, and I can not help knowing intuitively, for the Bible, 
common sense, and the universal testimony of all the intelli- 
gent beings with Avhom I am acquainted confirm my intui- 
tions, that the relations which God sustains are a thing as 
different from God as the garments a man wears are different 
from the man. God is a substantive existence ; a self-exist- 
ence ; an independent existence. The relations which God 
sustains towards men have no substantive existence at all. 
They only exist in the conception of moral intelligence. They 
are mere accidents of moral agents. They had no existence 
antecedent to the creation of man, or to his actual existence ; 
because it is a flat contradiction to say or suppose that God 
sustains any relation to a thing that does not exist. It is 
uttering a simple falsehood. But the relations which God 
sustains towards man since the fall, as his Saviour, his Medi- 
ator, his Redeemer, his Sanctifier and Comforter, had no ex- 
istence antecedent to that event. They came into existence 
as consequents of that catastrophe. They are, therefore, 
new, in comparison with all the relations existing between 
God and man antecedent to that rebellion. As the subjects 
of these relations, on the part of sinning men, are totally dif- 
ferent in moral character, in condition, in circumstances, wants 
and necessities, so the personalities, the duties, obligations 
and actions resulting from these relations, are new, totally 



IXCARXATTON OF DKITY. 91 

various and different, and as numerous as the varying charac- 
ters, conditions, circumstances and wants of the subjects of 
the corelations. 

Xow, in affirming three persons in the Godhead, I do not 
intend to predicate personaUty of the Deity at all, in any 
sense. Personality, as I have already shown, exists in the 
relations of moral agents, from which result duties, obliga- 
tions, and moral character. Personalities, therefore, can be 
imputed to God only as qualities, circumstances, or accidents 
of the relations he sustains as moral Governor of the universe. 
Antecedent to the creation of finite subjects of moral govern- 
ment, no personal relations, duties or obligations existed be- 
tween God and men ; and, therefore, nothing existed of which 
personality can be predicated, nothing to be called jDersonal 
only an infinite substantive Being, the distinctive nature and 
qualities of which no human agent has yet been permitted to 
form the first conception. The relations he sustains to us and 
other things in general, constitute the utmost limit of our 
knowledge or conception of his actual existence. Indeed, all 
the knowledge or conception of his existence which we have, 
or which any human being ever attains in this world, is 
merely inference from the consciousness of our own being, 
and consists in a perception of a relation which he sustains 
towards us. We are so constituted that, whenever we per- 
ceive any thing existent, whether substantive being or mere 
change, we intuitively and necessarily infer a preexisting ade- 
quate cause for that consequent. Thus all our knowledge and 
belief of the existence of God ultimately depends upon, and 
is only found in the relation between cause and effect which 
he sustains tovrards us. The same is true with respect to 
personality. It is found only, and exists only, in the relations 
he sustains to us as our moral Sovereign. Therefore, to avoid 
a gross solecism, confounding the infinite and eternal sub- 
stance — the distinctive nature and qualities of which I have 
not the least conception — with the finite personal relations and 
obligations he sustains, and the works he performs towards 
sinful men, Avhich must all vary and multiply as the charac- 
ters, conditions, and necessities of their objects change, I 



92 TEIXITY OF PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD. 

avoid ascribing personality to the eternal, unchangeable, self- 
existent God. 

I use the word Godhead, a term constructed for the very 
purpose, as I conceive, of expressing in the concrete all the 
various personal relations which God sustains towards sinful 
men. I make a triple distinction of these personal relations, 
by affirming three persons in the Godhead. I find it useful 
and necessary to make this numerical distinction, in order to 
attain for myself, or to convey to others, any definite or intel- 
ligible conception of these relations, their duties and obliga- 
tions, and especially of the glorious works of grace, mercy 
and salvation, which God performs in these different rela- 
tions. And the God of infinite wisdom, as I learn from his 
word, has also deemed it convenient and necessary to make 
the same numerical distinction in revealing his purposes of 
grace and salvation to fallen men. He teaches us, as dis- 
tinctly and as plainly as can be taught in human language, 
that he himself, the one living and true God, in the perfect 
unity of his identical substantive being, does act in a variety 
of personal relations, as different and distinct as it is possible 
to conceive of any three human persons, and in these relations 
fulfilling a variety of personal obligations, and performing a 
variety of personal works for the preservation, comfort, and 
salvation of men. Though these personal relations are as 
various as the characters and conditions of the objects, yet a 
triple distinction of persons is sufficient to make the difierent 
j)ersonal relations and works intelligible. 

In the first personal distinction, which we designate by the 
term Father, he sustains the various personal relations, and 
performs the various works of Creator, Preserver, Benefac- 
tor, and moral Sovereign. By his physical power, through 
the physical laws of matter, he brings this material w^orld 
into the proper condition, preserves it in this condition, pro- 
ducing and directing its successive changes for the produc- 
tion, sustenance, and preservation of a succession of human 
agents, during their probation in the flesh. " For in him w^e 
live and move and have our being." '-' Seeing he giveth to 
all life and breath and all thins^s." Acts xx. In the second 



IXCARXATIOX OF DEITY. 93 

person, which we call the Son, he performs the personal du- 
ties of Mediator, liedeemer, and Advocate, including the dis- 
tinct personalities of Prophet, Priest, and King. In these 
personal relations he acts at one time, in one personality by 
physical power, in another by passive endurance in the flesh, 
in another by motive influence of truth. " For there is one 
God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ 
Jesus : who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in 
in due time." In the third person, the Holy Ghost, he acts 
in the personal relations of a Comforter, Instructor, Sanctifier 
or Saviour from the law of sin and death. The appropriate 
works of this personality are all eflected by the motive influ- 
ence of truth, communicated to sinful men through the me- 
dium of their depraved animal senses and perverted intellect. 
'' Sanctify them through thy truth : thy word is truth." 
Jesus Christ, Jno. xvii. 57. 

Now personality, when applied to the agent who acts in 
these various personal relations, has no reference, implication 
or allusion, to numerical difierence, either of unity or plur- 
ality ; because the same identical being may sustain and act 
in each and all of these personal relations, and, as to the sub- 
stance of his being and the mode of his existence, may con- 
tinue to be the same identical unity. And the same identical 
unity of being may take into unity w^ith himself, as to pur- 
pose, will, obligation and action, another, two, three, or any 
number of individuals, and thus constitute a new individual 
person in a particular relation, and perform new personal du- 
ties or actions, and effect new and most important results, 
which could never have existed or been effected but for the 
constitution of this new personality. Such are the facts that 
occur, exist and come to pass, whenever a legislative body is 
organized, a jury is empanelled, a court constituted, or any 
joint stock or partnership is formed. And these composite 
persons and their doings, in their proper relations, are, by 
good writers and correct speakers, put in the singular num- 
ber, and their doings represented as the acts of an individual 
agent. And no solecism is committed ; no impropriety of 
language is imputed ; and no absurdity is charged. Because 



94 TRIXITY OF PERSOXS IX THE GODHEAD. 

common sense, the word of God and general usage of all civ- 
ilized society, teach all men that these artificial personalities 
are as truly single persons, in the particular relation for which 
they were constituted, as the personality of a single individual 
agent. 

When, therefore, a trinity of persons is predicated of the 
Godhead, the words are used in their plain common sense 
signification, expressing a fact that is always present in the 
relations and doings of organized communities. It indeed in- 
volves a general truth, universally understood, acknowledged, 
and acted upon by all men, but involving no mysticism or 
inexplicable dogma : viz., the simple truth that a single agent 
may sustain and act in a variety of different personal relations 
towards other agents and objects, and retain his own unity 
and identity of being. 

The relations which God sustained to man immediately 
after the fall, were such as to render it necessary for him to 
constitute a new and unique personality, that never existed 
in the universe before ; and to create, or bring into substan- 
tive existence, a person essentially different, in relations, en- 
doAvments, and capabilities, from all antecedent existences. 
God, antecedent to the fall, sustained the relation of Creator, 
Father, and universal parent to all the human race, and sub- 
sequently to each human being, as they successively came into 
being, according to his will. This relation of universal Parent 
involves the obligation of providing, to the extent of his ability, 
for the highest moral perfection and greatest happiness of each 
and all of his intelligent, moral, sentient offspring. His ability 
is infinite in wisdom, power and goodness. In constituting 
the higher law, or that system of moral government by which 
he governs the human race, under which they form their 
moral characters, and by which they determine their final 
destinies, he made that provision. That provision is as per- 
fect and adequate as infinite wisdom, powxr and goodness 
could conceive, prompt, and execute. It was infinitely per- 
fect and adequate. Sin is incidental to a perfect moral sys- 
tem, under a perfect moral law. This we know by sad ex- 
perience. " The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the 



IXCARXATIOX OF DEITY. 95 

8011I." But we have sinned in transgressing that perfect law. 
The provision for the perfect rectitude and happiness of man, 
contained in the higher hxw, must, therefore, have included a 
complete, adequate, and perfect remedial provision for the 
salvation of every sinner of the human family. If the higher 
law does not contain such remedial provision for every possi- 
l>le contingency that may occur under its influence, it is a very 
imperfect, lame, and totally inadequate instrument of moral 
government. But the law is infinitely perfect ; it contains 
such provision for every contingency. The paternal relation 
which God sustained to men, is not extinguished by such an 
incident. The obligations resulting from that relation were 
still binding. It was still possible for a sinning human agent 
to be saved from sin and its consequent misery. God is love, 
and in him is no darkness at all. Infinite benevolence could 
not but desire the salvation of every fallen creature. Parental 
love could not abandon his child for a single fault. There is 
hope till the privileges of probation are entirely exhausted. 
The obligation to develope the glorious remedy of grace, and 
give the sinner a new probation under grace, was felt by in- 
finite love. " God so loved the world that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life." But how could the remedy 
be applied in the case of sinful men in the flesh ? 

" The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." The 
absolute perfection of this law involved these three important 
truths : 1st. This perfect law w^as adequate, in itself, to secure 
to every obedient subject, the highest moral perfection and 
greatest blessing or happiness his nature was capable of, by its 
own moral influence, independent of all other influences, agen- 
cies, or causality in the universe. Of course, therefore, it was 
the sole basis or foundation on w^hich all the happiness and 
hope of created subjects of moral government must rest. 2d. 
This perfect law embodies, constitutes, or includes all the moral 
power, influence and causality, for right moral action and spir- 
itual enjoyment, in the universe. It constitutes God's entire 
moral omnipotence. It is the law of truth ; and God never 
put forth any other influence for the production of moral 



96 TKIXITY OF TERSOXS IX THE GODHEAD. 

change or right action but truth. There is no other influence 
or causality for the j^roduction of right moral action in the 
universe. 3d. This perfect law carries its penal sanction in 
its own perfection, and executes the same by its own moral 
influence, independent of all other agency or causality. Hence 
there is no power in the universe that can save from this pen- 
alty, not even omnipotence, physical or moral, but on two in- 
dispensable conditions. First, a completely equivalent substi- 
tute for the punishment of the transgressor ; and second, a 
perfect renovation of his moral character by perfect conform- 
ity and obedience to the law. To save a sinner of the human 
race these tw^o conditions must be fully accomplished. The 
first as an absolutely necessary preliminary, and the second as 
the change, in which his salvation must consist. 

The only equivalent substitute, for the punishment of the 
transgressor of the higher law, must consist in such an illus- 
tration of the perfection of the law as would be made by the 
execution of its penalty on the transgressor ; so as to leave the 
moral influence of the law upon all subjects the same as if the 
penalty had been inflicted. Such an illustration is what in 
the Bible is called atonement or reconciliation. No being ex- 
isting antecedent to the fall Avas competent to make such an 
atonement. ISTone but a divine Mediator, uniting in the same 
individual personality the attributes, the dignity and the per- 
fections of the Deity with the infirmities, susceptibilities, and 
emotions of man as he was, degenerated and debased by 
four thousand years' experiment under the law of sin and 
death. Such a divine Mediator w^as necessary, that he might 
comprehend the infinite interests to be secured by his media- 
tion, and also to give dignity, importance and influence to his 
doings. Such a human mediator was necessary, to adapt his 
doings and endurings to the condition of those to be redeemed ; 
" that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things 
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the 
people." No human or finite being could, by obeying and 
suffering, honor and magnify the law so as to restore and sus- 
tain the motive influence of the same, and yet survive to re- 
joice in the triumphs of redemption. No divine being could 



IXCARNATIOX OF DEITY. 97 

know or sympathize with the sufferings of humanity in the 
flesh. A combination of Divinity and humanity, in one per- 
sonal unity, could alone qualify for the office of Mediator, in 
this case, between God and man. Such was the infinite dis- 
parity of nature, and the perfect moral contrariety of will and 
affection, that it was both morally and physically impossible 
for the parties to meet on equal or equitable terms, and con- 
struct a reconciliation, or repair the evils, or counteract the 
consequences of sin. 

As soon, therefore, as the contingency of sin occurred in 
the human family, God presented himself to our progenitors 
in a new and perfectly unique personality ; a personality that 
never before existed, but in the divine purposes of grace to 
fallen men, — a personality that never existed in any other 
relation, and can never exist in any other relation. The rela- 
tion itself, which called for this unique personality, never ex- 
isted till that day, because the subjects of the co-relation 
never existed till then. There were no human agents that 
needed salvation antecedent to that transgression. But im- 
mediately on the occurrence of that event God presented 
himself in a human person, addressed the offenders in human 
language, made known his presence to them through the me- 
dium of the animal senses of the human body : '' And they 
heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the 
cool of the day ; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from 
the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." 
Here were the two natures, the divine and the human, united 
in one single person, first exhibited on the earth. Here the 
God-man Mediator first spoke to the sinful agents, for whom 
" he gave himself a ransom to be testified in due time." 

When he had convicted the offenders out of their own 
mouths, and pronounced sentence on the tempter, he then de- 
clared to them the promised Mediator of the woman's seed. 
" And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and 
between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and 
thou shalt bruise his heel." He then and there preached the 
gospel of Christ, which " is the power of God unto salvation 
to every one that believeth." He undoubtedly explained to 
5 



98 TRIXITY OF PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD. 

them the great mystery of godliness ; God manifested in the 
flesh, and the Avhole doctrine of mediation, atonement, pro- 
pitiation, redemption, and moral renovation. For they per- 
fectly understood, and practically believed in the divine atoning 
Mediator, repented and received remission of their sins and 
absolution from guilt, and all liability to penal infliction for 
2)ast sins, both of themselves and their posterity. So that for 
the sin of eating the forbidden fruit, and all their sins previous 
to that meeting in the garden of Eden, no penal suffering hath 
ever been inflicted on any human being, or ever can be, be- 
cause it hath been all atoned for and absolved, and for ever 
annihilated. Only the physical consequences of that sin, which 
infinite wisdom, poAver and goodness can not move, till the 
probation of grace in the flesh is ended, continues to aflfect the 
human family. By that act of absolving our progenitors from 
the sin of the fall, God became the Saviour of all men, espe- 
cially of them that believe. The whole subsequent race were 
saved from utter extinction on that very day that Adam trans- 
gressed the law, and incurred the penalty. " In the day thou 
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." But they did not die. 
They were saved by grace, " through the redemption that is 
in Christ Jesus : " and lived to have an innumerable posterity, 
to replenish the earth and subdue it. 

Though the physical and intellectual organization, which 
afterwards constituted the man Jesus of Nazareth, did not 
come into substantive existence till four thousand years later ; 
yet the person of the God-man Mediator was constituted, 
created, or brought into existence, and commenced the glo- 
rious work of saving a ruined race of created, intellectual, im- 
mortals, on thd^very day they incurred the ruin. '' The Lord 
hath said unto me, Thou art my Son ; this day have I begot- 
ten thee." Ps. ii. 7. He had no existence before that day. 
A son does not exist before he is begotten. But his passion 
was, that very day, accepted as the propitiation for the sins 
of the whole world ; and the world being saved thereby, was 
put on a new probation under grace. And the whole admin- 
istration of the same was committed to this one divine and 
human Mediator between God and man. From that day to 



IXCARXATIOX OF DEITY. 99 

the present, the whole Avork of Mediation and liedemption 
has been carried on by him, and will continue to progress 
under his hand, till he brings forth the key-stone thereof, 
" with shouting, crying grace, grace unto it." It was, and 
always must be competent, and perfectly within the ability 
of the omnipotent and omnipresent God to put himself into 
personal unity Avith human nature, or with any created ex- 
istence, that occupies space, Avhenever he wills it, or chooses 
to act in such a personal unity. And since the day of the 
fall there has never been the least intercourse between God 
and sinful men, but through the agency, intercession and pro- 
pitiation of this God-man Mediator, Jesus Christ. Nor has 
God ever abandoned, for a single moment, any sinning human 
agent, till his probation under grace was ended, and his char- 
acter of moral evil was perfected and confirmed beyond hope 
of renovation. Such then is the second person in the adorable 
Trinity of the God-head. A jDcrfect man without sin, but made 
in the likeness of sinful flesh, with its infirmities, as they were 
after four thousand years' bondage under the law of sin and 
death ; and at the same time, in the same person, the infinitely 
perfect and unchangeable God. This infinitely glorious and 
unique Person was created or brought into being by a special 
act of divine sovereignty, and not by ordinary generation, as 
other human agents are; nor yet by eternal generation, as 
theological romancers have dreamed, but in time for the defi- 
nite jDurpose of saving sinful men. " This day have I begot- 
ten thee." 

In the constitution of the person of this divine Mediator 
there is no inexplicable mysticism. N^o dogma asserted that 
cannot be explained and made intelligible to any human agent 
of common sense, w^ho Welshes to understand it, and is w^illing 
to bestow the necessary thought and reflection. There is no 
proposition involved in this view of the subject but what is 
perfectly reconcilable with all truth, both moral and physical. 
We do not deny ; we believe, we know, and understand the 
mystery of godliness. We know that the whole gracious 
provision of the higher law, the Avonderful jplsm of saving sin- 
ful men, by a divine Mediator, voluntarily giving himself as a 



100 TRINITY OF PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD. 

propitiatory sacrifice, in human flesh, for the redemption of the 
whole fallen race, is the most profound, the most sublime and 
glorious mystery ever conceived of by finite intellect. " With- 
out controversy great is the mystery of godliness." This 
mystery and its results are the things which the angels desire 
to look into. It was hid in the secret counsels of the divme 
mind, till the contingency for which it was provided had oc- 
curred. And even after that it was hid from ages and gen- 
erations by the influence of prevailing sin and aversion to the 
light of truth. But as soon as the contingency occurred, a 
full and clear revelation of the mystery was made to the trans- 
gressors ; and the nature, design, conditions and results of the 
divine plan were so fully and adequately explained to our 
progenitors, that they clearly understood and practically be- 
lieved, and were saved. And a significant typical illustration 
of the mystery was given them as an essential part of their 
weekly devotions, till the actual manifestation in the flesh 
should be perfected. God at that time instituted the sacra- 
ment of animal sacrifice, by shedding the blood of innocent 
subjects, and clothing the naked culprits with their skins. 

But since the incarnation, and especially since the resurrec- 
tion of the Saviour and the completion of the New Testa- 
ment, it is very inconsistent for ministers of the gospel and 
doctors of divinity to tell poor, lost sinners that this subject 
is involved in profound mysteries, which they cannot explain 
and no human intellect can understand or comprehend. Ev- 
ery sinning agent must understand, comprehend, and practi- 
cally believe this great mystery of godliness, or perish in his 
sins. The apostle tells us that '^ God was manifested in the 
flesh." It must have been in this relation and in this very 
person of Jesus Christ, in this very work of redemption, and 
in the very article of atoning for sins. Xo other manifesta- 
tion in the flesh can be pretended. Whatever is manifested is 
made clear, plain, visible to the eye, obvious to the under- 
standing, apjjarent to the conception, no longer obscure to the 
sight or understanding. Every thing that can be conceived as 
relating to this mystery, was done publicly before the eyes of 
thousands, has been explained by all the illustrations that in- 



INCARXATIOX OF r)i:iTV. lOl 

finite wisdom could devise and adopt to make it plain and 
imderstandable to sinners in the flesh ; and all has been re- 
corded in plain, common sense language. The apostle tells us 
the reason of this manifestation, or why it Avas necessary that 
such a personality should be constituted, and such a propitia- 
tory sacrifice offered. That God might be ''justified in the 
Spirit." The God of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, 
the moral Sovereign of the universe, now sustained the rela- 
tion of Saviour to sinful, rebellious man, and Avas absolving 
them from guilt, or delivering them from liability to sufler the 
penal consequences which his own law (that is, his own will, 
for his will and the higher law are identical) inflicts on the trans- 
gressor. It was necessary, to justify himself from manifest 
absurdity, self-contradiction, partiality, favouritism, injustice, 
cruelty, and barbarous tyranny to other subjects of his gov- 
ernment, that he should develop and fully illustrate the crown- 
ing perfection of the higher law, to the view and comprehen- 
sion of the whole moral universe. This consisted in the 
infinite provision of grace which the law included, or rather 
in what God himself, in personal unity with a sinless human 
agent, was under obligation to the law to do, and could and 
would do, for the salvation of sinners. '' Being justified freely 
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ; 
whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in 
his blood, to declare his righteousness, for the remission of 
sins that are past through the forbearance of God ; To declare, 
I say, at this time, his righteousness : that he might be just, 
and the justifier of him which believe th in Jesus." — Rom. iii. 
24-26. 

This development and illustration of the perfection of the 
higher law, which was made in the flesh, " was seen of an- 
gels." They were interested subjects of the same moral king- 
dom. But being finite intellects, they had never before com- 
prehended the infinite perfections of the higher law, nor the 
infinite goodness of God in the gracious provisions of that 
law. But their own perfection and blessedness, and, indeed, 
every interest of every obedient subject of moral government 
depended on the motive influence of that perfect law. If the 



102 TRINITY OF TEKSOXS IX THE GODHEAD. 

law was not magnified and made honorable, or if its motive 
influence was not perfectly sustained, they were ruined, as 
well as sinful men. But they saw the God-man Mediator, of 
his own will, freely, of choice, bearing " our sins in his own 
body on the tree ; " (" and the Lord hath laid on him the in- 
iquity of us all," even of the whole human race ;) not by suf- 
fering punishment or penal infliction of any sort, or in any 
sense whatever ; but by voluntary endurance in the flesh, il- 
lustrating the infinite and crowning perfection of the law, and 
the infinite goodness and benevolence of the Lawgiver ; thus 
establishing and confirming forever the motive influence of 
the law. In making this illustration, two important, evangel- 
ical, saving truths were revealed to the created moral universe, 
Avhich previously had been unknown and inconceivable to all 
finite intelligence. First, that such is the nature and absolute 
perfection of the higher law, that it is just as impossible for 
Omnipotence to save a sinner from its penalty, without such 
an atonement, to be made only by a divine Mediator, and re- 
ceived in penitence and faith by the subject, as it is for imbe- 
cility itself, unaided, to create a universe. The second truth 
is, that now such an atonement being made, God can be just 
and the Justifier, the Saviour and Sanctifier of him which be- 
lieveth in Jesus. 

This same God, who was manifested in the flesh, was also 
" preached unto the Gentiles, even to all the human race," as 
the only Saviour of men, and this atoning sacrifice the only 
possible method of saving a sinning human agent. This was 
done to illustrate the infinite benevolence of God in making 
this propitiation, not for a part, not for a few, nor even a very 
great select number, "but also for the sins of the whole 
world." Even for the sins of every individual human agent 
that ever did or ever shall commit a sin during his probation in 
the flesh, and that thus every sinner may have an opportunity 
of saving himself from the consequence of his transgression, 
unless prevented by human agency. 

This doctrine of atonement for the sins of men was be- 
lieved on in the world before the Saviour was born, or the 
propitiatory illustration consummated. Even from the day 



IXCARXATION OF DEITY. 103 

it was first preaclied to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, 
to the present hour, it has constituted a fundamental article 
in the religious belief of the whole world, with very few if 
any exceptions, either among pagan Gentiles or in Christen- 
dom. The universal prevalence of propitiatory sacrifice of 
some sort or another, and in one shape or another, among all 
pagan nations and savage tribes of men, is demonstration per- 
fect that the necessity of atonement, in order to obtain abso- 
lution from guilt and misery as the consequence of sin, is an 
intuitive truth to the human intellect, which the sinning hu- 
man agent can no more evade or get rid of than he can get 
rid of his own existence. This conviction is an essential part 
of his character, just as soon as transgression constitutes his 
relationship to the higher law, and must continue so to be, and 
constitute a fruitful source of misery, till absolved by the blood 
of the "Lamb of God which taketh avv^ay the sins of the 
w^orld." 

The sinner must obtain reconciliation by some other per- 
son, or he must make atonement himself, because it is impos- 
sible for him to get rid of this conscious intuitive necessity. 
But neither conscience nor intuition can suggest any other 
means of atonement but voluntary personal suffering. Hence 
the thousands of self-tormentors among pagan devotees and 
Christian ascetics. And even among evangelical Christians, 
as the speculating theologians and pious romancers obscure 
the glorious doctrines of the Trinity, the incarnation and 
atonement, by their fogs of mysticism, personal austerity and 
exclusiveness, unnecessary self-denial and mortification, with 
self-sacrificing and painful and useless observances, are very 
apt to be multiplied, and often take the place of piety towards 
God and benevolence to our fellow sinners. 

Finally, this incarnate Deity, this Son of God in human 
flesh, " When he had by himself purged our sins, was received 
up into glory, and sat down on the right hand of the Majesty 
on high." There, in the court of heaven, he is the resident 
advocate and representative of all who believe in him ; and is 
" able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God 
by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." 



104 TKIXITY OF PEKSOXS IX THE GODHEAD. 

The entire providential government of this world is com- 
mitted to him, all things being put under his feet, or at his 
disposal, and he giv en to be the head over all things to the 
Church. " For he must reign till he hath put all enemies 
under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is 
death." God hath constituted him a king, and put every 
thing in this rebellious province of his dominion under his 
control, till he has perfectly quelled the rebellion, and brought 
the last sinner, that infinite wisdom, power and goodness can 
save, to the full enjoyment of the liberties of the adopted sons 
of God, to wit, the redemption of the body. '^ Then cometh 
the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, 
even the Father ; when he shall have put down all rule and 
all authority and power ; then shall the Son also himself be 
subject unto him that did put all things imder him, that God 
may be all in all." The work of saving lost men had a be- 
ginning, and we may be sure it will have an end, for God 
never leaves his work half accomplished, but always completes 
what he begins. Sinners must be saved in time, or perish for 
ever. The personal relations, the personalities and the per- 
sonal doings, that have been constituted and employed in 
that work, must have an end. But this human agent, Jesus 
of Nazareth, who, in the second person of the Godhead, 
achieved the redemption of a world, " Being made so much 
better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a 
more excellent name than they," must of course be exalted in 
dignity, honor, and glory ; " far above all principality, and 
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is 
named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to 
come." 

4th. But we have affirmed a third person in the Godhead. 
The necessity of a third personal distinction among the rela- 
tions which God sustains towards men as the Saviour of sin- 
ners, arises out of the personal character and condition of men 
as transgressors of the higher law. By the first act of trans- 
gression the sinner puts himself under the law of sin and 
death. He becomes subject to that influence which Paul 
described as a law in his members Avarrinu* a2:ainst the law 



IXCAKNATIOX OF DEITY. 105 

of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin 
which was in his members. In another place, in analyzing 
the law of sin and death, I have shown that the immediate, 
the natural and necessary consequence of the first transgres- 
sion of the law of God, is to close the intellectual vision of 
the transgressor against the light of truth as it shines in the 
higher law, and to beget an inveterate hatred and aversion to 
that light. " For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, 
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be re- 
proved." 

But this light of truth in the perfect law of the Lord, which 
converts the soul, being the only influence, powder, or causality 
in the universe for the production of right moral action, or 
any moral change for the better, it must be brought into con- 
tact with the intellectual perception, and the moral sense or 
conscience of the sinner, in order to begin his moral renova- 
tion. Notwithstanding all that the second person had done 
as Mediator, Redeemer and Intercessor, God could do nothing 
to save the sinner from sin and its consequent misery till a 
new method of access to his moral susceptibilities was devised 
and instituted. But this perfect law of the Lord executes its 
penal sanction by its own motive influence, independent of 
all other causality. The penalty in the case of the first trans- 
gression of man was, " In the day thou eatest thereof, thou 
shalt surely die." If the moral Sovereign had not graciously 
interfered, on that very day our progenitors must have died 
under the motive influence of the very law which is the only 
power in the universe that can save a sinning human agent. 
And they must also have died childless, and the whole race 
must have become extinct in the first couple. But God did 
interfere to save the race. This interference was by an act 
of his physical omnipotence, in the first person of the God- 
head, shielding and sustaining the physical organization of 
Adam and Eve from dissolution, under the shock of their first 
sight of their new character and condition in the light of 
truth. Had the full light of eternal truth from the higher 
law shined into their moral susceptibility, and revealed to 
them their new character and condition in their whole extent, 
5* 



106 TEINITY OF PERSONS IX THE GODHEAD. 

and in their relations to the future, they would not have sur- 
vived a single day. And here we may observe a beam of the 
infinite wisdom and goodness of God, reflected from the law 
of sin and death. The immediate influence of the first trans- 
gression of the law of God is to beget aversion to the light of 
truth, and to array all the self-preservative instincts, appetites, 
and passions of the animal nature of man in opposition to, and 
avoidance of, the light of moral truth. Now, this hatred and 
aversion to the light of truth operated on Adam, and continues 
to operate on every sinning human agent, as a temporary 
shield and protection against the penal effect of that light on 
a guilty conscience. The unmitigated light of eternal truth 
on a guilty conscience, is the flaming sword of vindictive 
justice, instantly sundering every bond of union between 
soul and body, and sending the immortal part naked to the 
everlasting punishment of the guilty. But in the hand of 
mercy it turns every way to keep the way of the tree of life. 
For the same motive influence of the light of truth, reflected 
from the cross of the divine Mediator, and mitigated by the 
infinite love of God for a lost and ruined world, falls upon 
the same guilty conscience as the reviving water of life, heal- 
ing the deadly wounds of the soul, and inspiring new moral 
life and saving hope into the trembling culprit. Or, as Paul 
describes the thing, it becomes " The law of the Spirit of life 
in Christ Jesus hath made (or making) me free from the law 
of sin and death." This application of the light of truth to 
the moral susceptibilities of the sinner, producing conviction, 
melting the affections into penitence, and persuading him to 
cease to do evil and learn to do well, is a spiritual, a moral 
influence, operation, or work. It lies totally without the 
sphere of all physical power, influence, force or causality. 
The effect produced is a moral change of the action, and, of 
course, in the moral character of the subject. It is the com- 
mencement of that moral change in which the salvation of the 
subject from sin and its consequent misery exclusively con- 
sists. It is the change technically called regeneration, or the 
new birth. It is that begetting with the word of truth which 
the Father of lights produces by a direct act of his own will. 



IXCARXATION OF DEITY. 107 

The will of God and the liigher law of eternal truth are iden- 
tical. It is produced by moral influence alone and exclusively. 
The agency, therefore, which God puts forth to produce it, 
is totally different and distinct from all physical power. It is 
produced solely by the motive influence of truth, modified by 
reflection from the cross of Christ and the love of God to 
sinning human agents. The personal relation in which this 
agency is put forth, is totally difterent from any other relation 
which God sustains, or can sustain, towards men. It, there- 
fore, constitutes a personality entirely diflferent from what can 
exist in any other case or relation. The action or influence 
which God puts forth in the first personal relation, is often in 
direct contrariety, and apparent opposition, to that which he 
puts forth in the third person. By his physical power, in the 
first person, God sustains and protects the sinner from the 
just deserts of his conduct, shielding him, by the influence of 
falsehood under the law of sin and death, from the penal in- 
fluence of the higher law, which w^ould at once destroy his 
life, and send him to suflfer the consequences of his rebellion ; 
while at the same time, in the third person, he is using all ap- 
propriate and all possible means, agency and influence, to 
bring the light of that same law, modified indeed by reflection 
from the cross, to bear on his conscience and persuade him to 
right moral action. But this light of truth must come grad- 
ually, in such measure as the subject of renovation can bear 
and digest : a few plain simple facts about the character of 
that seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's 
head ; and then a plain visible illustration of the nature of the 
atonement ; and then a few rays of light from the higher law, 
showing the exceeding great reward there is in keeping the 
commandments of the Lord. And all must be communicated 
through the depraved, viciated, and diseased animal senses of 
the sinner. And surely nothing short of infinite wisdom 
could so modify and balance and direct these apparently con- 
flicting influences of truth, as to preserve the life and continue 
the probation of the sinner, in the flesh and under grace, till 
he shall have enjoyed a full, fair, and adequate opportunity of 
perfecting the renovation of his moral character, and thus se- 



108 TRINITY OF PEKSONS IX THE GODHEAI>. 

curing the gracious gift of God, even eternal life by Jesus 
Christ our Lord. 

This third personal relation of the one living and true God, 
to fallen men, is personified in the Bible, and by the Saviour 
liimself, under the titles of '' The Comforter, The Holy Ghost, 
The Spirit of truth. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." " I 
will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Com- 
forter, that he may abide with you for ever ; even the Spirit 
of truth." Jno. xiv. 16. '' The Comforter, which is the Holy 
Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach 
you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance 
whatsoever I have said unto you." Verse 26. " But when 
the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the 
Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the 
Father, he shall testify of me." John xv. 26. "And when he 
is come he Avill reprove the world of sin, and of righteous- 
ness, and of judgment." Jno. xvi. 8. ''He shall glorify me : 
for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All 
things that the Father hath are mine : therefore said I that 
he shall take of mine and show it unto you." Jno. xvi. 14, 15. 

In these quotations Jesus Christ speaks of three distinct 
persons, including himself, each of them at the same time per- 
forming actions, as distinct and as different from each other, 
as can be conceived ; actions, which no agent in the universe, 
but the infinite, omniscient and omnipotent Spirit can perform. 
In the first quotation these three persons, the Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost are perfectly identified as one substantive Being, 
not in the same, but in three totally different relations. In 
relation to sinful men, and the gracious work of saving them 
from sin and its miserable consequences, the three persons and 
their actions in this gracious work, are as distinct and as dif- 
ferent from each other as the persons and actions of any three 
different human aerents actino^ at the same time on the three 
great continents of this globe. While in the relation of Pro- 
prietor of all things, they are a perfect unity ; and in all other 
relations, as far as we know, God may be spoken of in a single 
personality. Or, if he chooses, he may speak of himself in as 
many varieties of personality as he sustains varieties of rela- 



IXOAKXATIOX OF DEITV. 100 

tion to liis creatures. But that self-existent Being, Vvhom we 
call God, Deity, and Creator, is always a perfect unity, a sim- 
ple identity, though he may be acting in ten thousand different 
places, on millions of different subjects, by different influences, 
forces, or causalities, and in ten thousand different personali- 
ties or personal relations. Hence, whenever we predicate 
personality of the Godhead, we refer to and intend to qualify 
only the relations which God sustains towards fallen men, as 
their Creator, Preserver, and Saviour. We use the name 
Godhead as a concrete term to express only the relations 
which God sustains to fallen men, and personality to distin- 
guish certain varieties qualifying these relations and the pe- 
culiar works of grace which belong to them. In the first 
person, God creates, sustains in the flesh, and protects the sin- 
ner from the penal influence of the higher laAV. In the second 
person he performs the entire works of Mediator, Redeemer, 
and Judge, including the ofiices of Prophet, Priest, and King. 
In executing these oflSces, and performing these relative du- 
ties, or works of grace, it was an absolutely necessary quali- 
fication of the personal agent, that he should unite in his per- 
sonality, the divine and the human nature, the Creator and 
the creature, the spiritual and the material. It was necessary, 
on the one hand, to include the infinite in his personality, in 
order to sustain him in works infinitely beyond finite powder 
or endurance, and to give dignity and motive value and im- 
portance to his doings, suflSicient to magnify and honor the 
law, or to illustrate the righteousness of God in enacting such 
a law. That he might be just, and the justifier of him which 
believeth in Jesus." And also to show the impossibility of 
saving the sinner without atonement. On the other hand it 
was essential that he should include the material, or animal 
nature, in order to reach and influence the intellectual and 
moral susceptibilities of sinful men, through the medium of 
their viciated and perverted animal senses. 

In the third person God begins, carries on, and perfects the 
moral renovation of the sinner, from his first conviction to the 
complete redemption of all his endowments from the law of 
sin and death. This is purely a moral change, effected by the 



110 TP.IXITY OF PERSONS IX THE GODIEEAD. 

moral influence of truth alone, to the exclusion of all physical 
force, power, or causality. But such is the condition of men 
in the flesh, and subject to the law of sin and death, that the 
truth, or will of God in the higher law, in order to gain access 
to his moral susceptibilities, must be embodied in personal 
unity, or identity with human language, either oral or written. 
Antecedent to the fall, the knowledge of moral truth, or of 
the will of God, on the higher law^, which are an identity, was 
intuitive to human intellect and conscience. That is, as soon 
as any relation involving duty, and imposing obligation, was 
perceived by any human intellect, the duty involved was in- 
tuitively, necessarily and instantly conceived and understood, 
and the obligation felt in all its extent, and the human will 
perfectly concurred with the truth, or divine w^ll. But since 
his transgression, the perceptive vision of the human intellect 
is voluntarily and habitually closed against the light of truth, 
for fear of reproof for his evil deeds. N'ot that he is unable 
to perceive, understand, and obey : for his ability is always 
and necessarily co-extensive w^ith the obligation ; but he hates 
the light, because it torments him, and would very soon ex- 
tinguish his animal life. Therefore, God embodies his will, or 
the truth, as far as it relates to sinful human agents, in human 
language, that may afi*ect the ear, or any other nervous organ 
of sensation, and thus reach the rational mind, when he pleases, 
without the consent of the will of the subject. Thus constitut- 
ing a new and perfectly unique personality. 

This, I believe, to be the true common sense idea expressed 
by Jesus Christ, our Saviour, when he prayed to the Father, 
'' Sanctify them through thy truth : thy w^ord is truth." Jno. 
xvii. 17. And by the Apostle James, when he says of the Fa- 
ther of lights : " Of his own will begat he us with the word of 
truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures." 
Jas. i. 18. Sanctifying is a personal act. Begetting is a per- 
sonal act. The Father of lights is the agent, the author, the 
gole efticient cause. And the Avord of truth is the sole eflicient 
cause, the immediate and invariable antecedent to the change 
whenever it takes place. This w^ord of truth, "is the word 
of salvation." " It is the power of God unto salvation." Rom» 



INCARXATIOX OF DEITY. Ill 

1.16. " By which also ye are saved." 1 Cor. xvi. 2. " The law of 
the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Here, then, vanishes 
the vexed question, which has been the subject of bitter con- 
flict for ages, viz : Does the direct or immediate power of 
God, or the motive influence of truth, produce the change of 
regeneration or conversion ? The word of truth and the 
power of God unto salvation is one and the same thing. In 
relation to the salvation of sinners of the human family, the 
almighty God and the word of truth constitute a single per- 
sonal identity. 

Thus v\^e have three persons in the Godhead : the Father, 
in the relations of Creator and Preserver ; the Son, in the re- 
lations of Mediator and Redeemer : the Holy Ghost, in the 
relations of Comforter and Sanctifier. But not the least ref- 
erence or allusion to the substantive existence or being of the 
Deity, in relation to time, space, mode, method, or numerical 
distinction. These three persons are as perfectly distinct and 
diverse from each other as any three human persons can be. 
They are neither the same in substance, nor equal in power, 
glory, or authority. The first in substantive existence is the 
infinite, eternal, and unchangable Spirit, pervading all space 
alike, whether occupied by other beings or not. Self-existent 
and nncaused himself, and the primary cause of all other sub- 
stantive being. The second is the same infinite being, uniting 
and acting in the most perfect personal unity, with a finite, 
created, intellectual moral agent, existing for a time in a ma- 
terial, animal body, and still existing in a finite, created, and 
spiritual body. The third in substantive being is the same 
infinite and self-existent Spirit, but acting in a new and diflfer- 
ent personal relation, on subjects in a diflferent condition, never 
conceived of by man before his fall. Each of these three per- 
sonalities is constituted diflTerently from both the others, and 
sustains to men, the subjects of salvation, a difierent relation, 
and performs difierent works, or diflferent parts of the work 
of salvation. The first is in authority, power, and glory, and 
in all his attributes infinitely perfect. The second, in his whole 
personal work and relations, is subordinate, dependent upon, 
and expectant of the first. The third is subordinate and per- 



112 TRINITY OF PERSOXS IX THE GODHEAD. 

fectlj dependent on the other two, both for authority, power, 
or ability, even to begin the work of moral renovation in the 
case of sinners. 

Till the motive influence of the higher law, that is of eter- 
nal truth, is restored and fully established by an adequate 
atonement, and so embodied as to reach the human conscience 
through the viciated animal senses of the transgressor, God 
Almighty is just as destitute of ability or influence to com- 
mence the moral renovation of the sinner, as the sinner is of 
physical power to create a universe. The atonement must 
come first. Events that are finite, consecutive, and connected 
in the relation of cause and efiect, must succeed in the order 
of nature. The antecedent must precede the consequent. 
The cause, instrument, and means must exist, before the con- 
sequent changes can begin to take place. The perfect Law 
of the Lord must be magnified and made honorable, its mo- 
tive influence must be re-established, before the divine Sancti- 
fier can begin his work of renovation ; for he must sanctify 
them by the motive influence of the truth, as exhibited in 
that Law. " Sanctify them through thy truth : thy word is 
truth." The motive influence of that law must be included in 
the antecedent of all right moral action, and of all moral 
change for the better. 

In aflSrming three persons of the Godhead I do not pretend, 
nor intend, to use the w^ord Godhead in the same sense or in 
the same extent of signification, in which it is sometimes used 
by men of learning and piety. I do not concur with those 
theologists w^ho make it synonymous with God, Deity, or 
Supreme Being. I believe such a use of the word to be sole- 
cistic, incongruous, and a breach of the laws of a correct syn- 
tax. But I use it in the precise and limited signification 
which I have endeavored to define. 

Nor do I use the word person or personality as meaning all 
and exactly the same things, when applied to the Godhead, 
that are intended to be expressed by it in all its various ap- 
plications to human agents, in human language. Sometimes 
it is used to designate one individual human agent from others 
of the same species or class. But in this sense I do not and 



ixcar:n^atiox of df.tty. 113 

can not use it, in application to the Godhead. A polytheist 
might, with propriety, make this use of it, to distinguish the 
Godheads of his Jupiter, Juno, Mars, and IS'eptune. But I 
acknowledge but one God, and know of but one Godhead in 
relation to human transgressors, and but one class of human 
transgressors to be saved, and but one Mediator, Jesus Christ, 
the Almighty Saviour of men. Personality is sometimes 
used to distinguish the different relations of an individual 
agent, or the different offices he sustains. " How different is 
the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a 
magistrate and that of a friend." Personality is also used to 
designate the united concurrent action of any number of hu- 
man agents. " The whole assembly rose spontaneously at the 
entering of the king." Here personality, in the singular num- 
ber and third person, is used to designate the relation and the 
concurrent action in that relation, of a large number of differ- 
ent individual agents. But in this use of personality there is 
no reference at all to the nature, or substantive being, or the 
manner of existence of the different agents concerned. Nor 
does it convey or imply the least suggestion, in reference to 
the number or circumstances of these agents, aside from that 
i:)articular relation, whether they were two, five, or five thou- 
sand ; whether black or white, rich or poor, wise or simple, 
civilized or savage. There is no solecism or mysticism in this 
use of personification ; no incongruity of language, no absurd- 
ity or contradiction in words or conception. But all is plain 
common sense language, capable of being understood by ev- 
ery person of common sense and common education. When, 
therefore, we affirm three persons of the Godhead, we use the 
terms person and personality in the common sense meaning of 
the words, according to the usage of the best writers and 
speakers of the language. And we use this language, and 
thus personify the Godhead, because we can not conceive of 
any other language, or any other method by which it is possi- 
ble for God, angel, or man, to convey to a sinful man any con- 
sistent, intelligible, or rational conception of the nature of 
salvation from sin ; or of the manner, means, and influences 
by which God does or can save a sinner from the penalty of 



114 TmXITY OF TERvSONS IX THE GODHEAD. 

his perfect law ; and also because this is the method the Holy 
Ghost uses in the Bible to communicate the knowledge of this 
subject to men. It involves no solecism, absurdity, or contra- 
diction. It is easily understood by all persons of common 
sense, who wish to understand and are willing to bestow the 
necessary thought and reflection. And there is not the least 
danger of its being misunderstood, to affirm the contradictory 
mysticism of three Gods being one God, or of three substan- 
tive beings constituting but one divine essence. 

But when the orthodox trinitarian affirms that the one true 
God, the Deity or the Supreme Being, exists in a trinity of 
persons, he commits a manifest solecism, he utters a real ab- 
surdity, he asserts a positive contradiction, both in words and 
in thought. He thus exposes himself to the just censure and 
easy refutation of his adversary. Trinity necessarily involves 
plurality, but plurality is not predicable of an infinite, omni- 
present, and michangeable Being without great absurdity 
and contradiction. The Bible declares, " The Lord our God 
is one Lord." Deut. vi. 4. On the other hand, when the pro- 
fessed unitarian affirms that " Three persons in the Godhead" 
means that there are three Gods, or in any way, shape or 
manner, implies or involves a plurality of Gods, or a plurality, 
or the least variety in the divine essence, commits the same 
solecism, and utters just as great an absurdity. He totally 
ignores all distinction between substantive being and person- 
ality ; confounding them as identical, or essentially coexistent ; 
and then transfers the personality, which we ascribe, and 
which exclusively pertains to the relationships that God sus- 
tains towards sinful men, to the substantive being of God, or 
to the divine essence. Whereas, the personalities of the God- 
head have no more reference to the substantive being of God 
than the phases of the moon have to the physical substance 
of the material sun. Every schoolboy of common sense 
knows that the various phases of the moon are produced by 
her own motion, constantly varying her relations, in space 
and position, to the light of the sun. And every theologian, 
who pretends to think and reason, ought to know that the 
personalities of the Godhead have their existence only in the 



IXCARXATIOX OF DEITY. 115 

varied relations wliicli exist between God and sinning men ; 
and that all the variety in these relations is produced by the 
voluntary action of sinners in relation to the perfect law of 
God. But the parties Avho had conceived these conflicting 
dogmas fell to loggerheads about their different mysticisms, 
each contending for the truth and divinity of their ow^n ab- 
surdity and contradiction, as an essential doctrine of godli- 
ness. And thus the conflict of ages has been kept alive, and 
time and treasure, thought and labor enough Tvasted to have 
evangelized the world and saved its millions ages ago ; while 
the entire subject of all this controversy, and the sole cause 
of the inconceivable loss and misery, has been a perfect myth, 
without the shadow of basis or cause, either in the nature or 
relations of any existent being or thing in the universe. 

But every common sense reader of the Bible, who feels in- 
terest enough on the subject to consider and reflect on w^hat 
he reads, knows that three distinct persons are there de- 
scribed, as sustaining distinct personal relations to fallen 
men ; and as each performing distinct personal agencies, or 
works, which none but an agent of infinite w^isdom, power 
and goodness can perform. And in all this he discovers no 
inexplicable mystery beyond the sphere of human intellect to 
understand or comprehend. Still we constantly hear from 
the pulpit, and read in books of theology and practical re- 
ligion, of the profound and inexplicable mysteries of godliness 
involved in this subject. We are often exhorted to believe, 
without doubting or hesitation, and w^arned against the 
damning sin of doubting propositions which contradict every 
intuition of human intellect, and every fact of human experi- 
ence, and the whole system of revealed truth. How^, says 
the godly teacher or w^riter, the infinite, unchangeable, and 
true God exists in three distinct and different persons, we 
cannot explain nor understand, even if God should declare it 
unto us, because it is a subject infinitely above the sphere of 
human intellect. But it seems that these learned teachers 
have not been able to understand, though God has often told 
them very plainly, that he existed and still exists, antecedent 
to, and independent of, all personality or personal relation to 



116 TJIINITY OF PERSOXS IN THE GODHEAD. 

the children of men : and, as far as we know, of all created 
or finite beings. To be sure, there is no Christianity, and, as 
far as we can conceive, no salvation without the doctrine of 
the trinity and the incarnation of the Deity. But Paul told 
Timothy that this great mystery of godliness was manifested 
in the flesh. If manifested in the flesh, it must be plain to 
the understanding of every human intellect in the flesh, who 
is willing or wishes to understand. Perhaps it would be as 
well, and as safe, to let the people of only common sense be- 
lieve, if they will, what Paul teaches on the subject, as to 
wrap up the whole in ever so profound a fog of mysticism ; 
especially since persons of only common sense are in the habit 
of believing practically only what they are able and permitted 
to understand. 

But the source of all this error, mysticism and controversy, 
may be seen in the confounding of personality with substan- 
tive being, as identical, or, at least, as something essential to 
and coexisting with substantive being, and in using the word 
Godhead as synonymous with Deity. Whereas, personality 
pertains exclusively to the relations of moral agents. It is an 
absolutely necessary and most useful contrivance in every hu- 
man language, to express, by varying the forms or positions 
of words, the varying circumstances of these relations, and of 
the duties and obligations resulting from them. The relations 
of the infinite and unchangeable God to sinning men must 
necessarily change and A^ary, as the character, condition, and 
circumstances of the sinner change. But in the substantive 
being, character, purpose, and will of the Supreme Being, 
there is no numerical distinction, no variableness, neither 
shadow of turning. When, therefore, the professed trini- 
tarian predicates personality of the Supreme Being, or affirms 
that the one living and true God exists in three, (or even in 
one person,) he contradicts himself, and utters a gross ab- 
surdity, Avhich can not be reconciled with the truth of God or 
the nature of personality ; for the very nature of personality 
necessarily involves the idea of change, of variety, of plurality. 
Personality, even in the singular number, is never used but 
to distinguish, by his relations, an individual of a particular 



INCAUXATIOX OF DEITY. 117 

nature, genus or species, from other individuals of the same 
kmd, and, therefore, necessarily implies that others of the same 
nature, genus or species, do actually exist at the time. 

Also, when the professed unitarian predicates personality 
of his God as something essential to his nature, or as qualify- 
ing the manner of his existence ; or when he affirms that a 
plurality of persons in the Godhead implies a plurality of 
Gods, or any variety or numerical distinction in the divine 
essence, or the least shadow of variation in the Supreme 
Being, he falls into the same error, contradiction, and gross 
absurdity. He confounds personality and substantive exist- 
ence as an identity, or as essentially coexistent : and uses the 
word Godhead as synonymous wdth God or Supreme Being. 
Therefore, the single or individual personality which he as- 
cribes to his God, necessarily implies that there are a variety 
of Gods, from whom it is necessary to distinguish the iden- 
tical Being, which he worships as his God. But when this 
one personality is added or predicated, w^hen he has called 
him the person of the one God, or the one God person, or 
the God of one person, or the personal substance of the one 
God, and varied the one person of his God by all the shades 
of meaning and all the modes and forms of expression and ex- 
230 sit ion that human language can furnish, the distinction is 
not yet made. He has not told himself, or any other created 
intellect, who his God is, or w^hat he is, how he exists, or 
whether he exists at all, or has any substantive being, or is 
only a mere fiction of the imagination. He has not yet ex- 
pressed, even to his own perception, or the perception of any 
other human intellect, which of the " Gods many and Lords 
many " he worships, or how his God differs in any respect 
from the ten thousands of Gods that float in depraved human 
imaginations. Some other w^ord, which refers to the relations 
of moral beings, must be added, before personality will ex- 
press any meaning at all, or qualify any substantive existence. 
The reason of this is, because personality refers, or has re- 
spect to the relations of moral agents, and to nothing else ; 
and exists only in the construction of human language to 
express the varieties of these relations. We may, therefore. 



118 TKIXITY OF PERSONS IX THE GODHEAD. 

defy the unitarian, the trinitarian, and all the doctors of the- 
ology and professors of i:)hilology on the earth, to show any 
meaning, sense, signification, use or influence of personifica- 
tion, in any of its forms or varieties of expression or shades 
of meaning, when abstracted from, or predicated of any thing 
else than those relations of moral beings which involve duty 
and obligation. 

I believe in the one infinite, self-existent Spirit as the only 
true God. And I believe him to be omniscient, omnipresent, 
and eternal ; infinite in w^isdom, power, and goodness, and in 
every other attribute essential to Deity. But with respect to 
the nature of the divine essence or substance, or the manner 
in which he exists, and with respect to the essential attributes 
of his being, I know nothing and can believe nothing, except 
what he has definitely and distinctly revealed to me, and made 
plain to my understanding and comprehension. I am a finite 
being. My intellectual endowments and moral susceptibilities 
are all finite, limited, and imperfect. And, therefore, all my 
perceptions, conceptions, ideas, or mental images of God, his 
essence, substantive being, mode of existence, purposes, acts, 
and ultimate designs, however enlarged and magnified by my 
little finite intellect, are still, and necessarily infinitely inad- 
equate, and infinitely short of the true ideal of the infinite and 
eternal God. If, therefore, I attempt to infer, or deduce any 
proposition, dogma, or affirmation, as a fact or truth, from my 
inadequate conceptions of the divine Being, his nature, attri- 
butes, purposes, and designs, it is impossible for me to know, 
whether my inference is true or false. And there is neces- 
sarily but one chance or i^robability, among an infinite number 
to the contrary, that my inference or aflirmation may be true. 
And I have never seen, known, heard, or read of any human 
agent in the flesh, since the fall, that ever had or was able to 
form any adequate, definite, explicable or understandable con- 
ception of the nature of the divine Essence, or the manner of 
his existence, or action ; or of the extent, method, or number 
of his decrees, purposes, or designs, any farther than God may 
have communicated to him by direct, express and compre- 
hensible revelation in human language. I have, therefore, re- 



IXCARXxVTIOX OF DEITY. 119 

pudlated all inferences, dogmas, and affirmations, drawn from 
tlie Unite, inadequate and imperfect conceptions of fallen men, 
concerning the infinities and eternities of the divine Being, his 
attributes, purposes, and Avorks. 

I believe that this self-existent Spirit, the living and true 
God, is the Creator of all other substantive beings, and that 
he therefore existed antecedent to the existence of any other 
being, and of course antecedent to any relation or personality 
of beings. For I can not conceive of relationship, as existing 
antecedent to the existence of the beings, who sustain the re- 
lation, and in whom alone the relationship has existence. And 
I can not conceive of personality but as qualifying some rela- 
tion involving obligation and duty. God must, therefore, 
have existed before he sustained any relation to any other 
being, or any obligation, duty, or personality. But when God 
created other and finite moral beings, he, by that act, brought 
into existence various relations, involving obligations and du- 
ties. And by the same act, also, he created the necessity of 
language, or some medium of intercourse or communication 
among moral beings : and also the necessity of those varied 
forms of language which are used to designate the varieties 
of personal relation. To meet these necessities in the case of 
men, God taught Adam the use of articulate sounds, as signs 
of things and thoughts, and thus constituted a medium of in- 
tercourse between himself, the moral Sovereign, and his hu- 
man subjects. Hence, the personal Logos, or Word, which, 
at the beginning of the dispensation, or reign of grace, was 
with God, and was God, viz : the self-existent Creator, the I 
Am, holding verbal intercourse with man, his creature and 
subject. This personality, or personal relation, was very 
properly and significantly called the Logos, or the Word, 
from the fact, that the only medium of intercourse between 
the correlatives of this relation was verbal. The finite cor- 
relate existing, only in perfect personal unity with a physical 
organization of material substance, the infinite spiritual Cor- 
relate, could reach his finite intellectual and moral suscepti- 
bilities only by locomotion produced in his physical organs of 
sensation. Thus we see God teaching Adam the use of ar- 



120 TRIXITY OF PERSOXS IX THE GODHEAD. 

ticulate sounds as a medium of intercommunication. Gen. i. 
19, 20. The personal Logos commenced existence immed- 
iately after the creation of man. Any supposed antecedent 
existence is an impossibility, involving a positive contradiction. 

When Adam brought sin and its consequent death into the 
world, he also created new and varied relations between him- 
self and the moral Sovereign of the universe. Infinite good- 
ness towards the guilty transgressors, of course, assumed the 
relation of Saviour to the sinful race, including all the sub- 
ordinate relations of Mediator, Redeemer, Advocate, Prophet, 
Priest, King, Sanctifier, Comforter, etc. Now, I use the 
term of Godhead, to signify all these varied relations which 
God, the moral Governor of the world sustains to sinning 
men. And I find it not only very convenient, but absolutely 
necessary, to use those forms of human language which are 
contrived to express the distinctions of personal relations, in 
order to speak, write, or even to think any thing intelligibly, 
in reference to these relations, or to the obligations, duties, 
and interests growing out of them. And God, himself, in con- 
descension to our infirmities, or in consequence of the limited, 
imperfect and perverted condition of our endowments, is under 
the same necessity of using these same personal forms of lan- 
guage in order to make known to us his will and purposes con- 
cerning these new relations created by transgression. 

While, therefore, I believe in a trinity of persons in the 
Godhead, as confidently as in my existence, I also believe, 
with the same confidence, in the perfect unity of the Deity, as 
a single identical and spiritual Substance, or Being, without 
the least shadow of numerical distinction, or variety in his 
essence or mode of existence. I claim, therefore, to be in 
faith and doctrine a true, orthodox, and consistent unitarian. 
And, with the same unhesitating confidence, I pronounce 
every person, who afiirms that God exists in three persons, to 
be in faith and doctrine a real polytheist. 

It may be possible, that my knowledge, belief, and afiirma- 
tions on this sublime and awful subject, are mere delusion, 
error, or falsehood. I am a finite, fallible, fallen and depraved 
creature, liable to err as well as my fellow sinners. I have, 



INCARXATIOX OF DKITY. 121 

in times past, erred, have been deluded, self-deceived, and de- 
ceived by venerable and pious human authorities. I have per- 
verted the truth, and have loved darkness rather than the 
light of truth. This was the natural consequent of my evil 
doing, according to the law of sin and death. But in refer- 
ence to myself, my present knowledge, belief, and affirmations 
on the subject, are of that peculiar kind, which seem to me to 
be absolutely infallible. First, because I know intuitively, and 
can not avoid knowing, and am necessarily conscious, and can 
not avoid being conscious of my own existence. And I 
know, intuitively, and can not avoid knowing, that I acquired 
this knowledge of my existence, through the sensation of a 
physical contact, of other substantive being. Thus, I intui- 
tively acquired, and could not avoid receiving the knowledge 
of the existence of other substantive beings besides myself. 
And I also know, intuitively, that God has so constructed, 
and combined together my physical and intellectual endow- 
ments and moral susceptibilities, that it is impossible for me 
to know, conceive, or be conscious of my own existence and 
the existence of other substantive beings, or of any change 
whatever, without at the same time, or immediately subse- 
quent, conceiving of, and knowing, intuitively, the existence 
of an efficient antecedent or adequate cause of the existence 
of such beings and changes. The only adequate and primary 
cause, possible to my conception, of the existence of all finite 
beings, is the infinite self-existent Spirit. Thus, I intuitively 
know the existence of the infinite, eternal, and self-existent 
God, and his essential attributes of infinite wisdom, power, 
and goodness. I believe also, and I think that I know, intui- 
tively and necessarily, that this intuitive knowledge of God, 
and his relations as Creator, Preserver, and moral Governor 
of the universe, is the first, most immediate, direct, express, 
infallible, and unmistakable revelation which God ever made, 
or can make to a created intellect. This knowledge, belief or 
intuition of this primary revelation from God, is no inference 
of a fallible, depraved creature, no result of a process of human 
ratiocination, but is immediately resultant from the relations 
constituted by endowing the animal man with moral suscep- 
6 



122 TRINITY OF PERSONS IX THE GODHEAD. 

tibilities, and thus constituting his human nature, making him 
an accountable creature, a subject of moral goverimient, and 
capable of forming moral character, contracting merit or 
guilt, and receiving reward or j)unishment. The process of 
the reception of this intuitive knowledge may be interrupted 
by the inexperienced and physically depraved human agent, 
being deceived and induced, as Eve was, to transgress some 
law or obligation resulting from these relations. The immed- 
iate consequence of the first evil doing, according to the law 
of sin and death, is the closing of his intellectual vision against 
this light of truth. " For every one that doeth evil hath the 
light," etc. Jno. iii. 20. And by wholly engrossing and occu- 
pying his mind with the objects of animal and sensual pleasure, 
he may, by continuous, positive, and habitual effort, exclude 
this kind of knowledge from his thoughts and memory for a 
time. But being mtuitive, natural and necessary it must and 
will return in due time, either in the present state of proba- 
tion, or the future state of retribution. If voluntarily received 
and submitted to in the state of probation it w^ill be saving, 
otherwise condemning. 

But, besides this intuitive knowledge, I know and believe that 
what I have endeavored to state, is eternal truth, by the infal- 
lible testimony of this same self-existent God, of infinite wis- 
dom, power, and goodness. This testimony he has given in 
the second person of the Godhead, constituted by the perfect 
personal unity of himself Avith the man Jesus of N'azareth. 
This testimony is perfectly adequate to found the most perfect 
and infallible knowledge and belief; it being the concurrent 
and united testimony of tw^o competent, infallible witnesses, a 
sinless human being and the unchangeable God of truth. He 
has caused it to be recorded in the Bible, but it was first given 
and taken, illustrated and recorded on the day sin entered the 
world, in the memory of the human family ; by typical sym- 
bols, visible, tangible and audible, adapting it most perfectly 
to the fallen condition of man at that time. The recording on 
I)aper or parchment became necessary, as the human race de- 
generated, and human memory became an incompetent and 
unsafe medium of transmission. The certainty and infiillibility 



INCARNATIOX OF DEITY. 123 

of my knowledge and belief, founded on this second revelation, 
depend solely on the unchangeable truth and veracity of the 
self-existent God. And what makes it entirely satisfactory to 
me, is the fact, that it harmonizes and agrees perfectly with 
the primary revelation, or the normal intuitions of uncon- 
taminated human nature, and wdtli the infinite wisdom, power 
and goodness of the divine author. My knowledge of w^hat I 
have stated and endeavored to illustrate is, in this aspect of 
the subject, the knowledge of faith, or perfect confidence in 
the truth of a competent and infallible Avitness. And w^ith 
Paul, I think " I know" Avhom I have believed." 

I have also an experimental knowledge of the truths I have 
stated. I have tested these things whereof I afiirm by actual 
and personal experiment. I have believed in the man Christ 
Jesus as the Redeemer, the Mediator, the propitiation, my 
Prophet, Priest and King ; and have entrusted to his disposal 
my entire interests, present and future. The result of this 
experiment has been that I have seen, felt, and experienced 
the infinite wisdom, power and goodness of the self-existent 
God, in personal unity with that w^ord of truth contained in 
the Bible, constituting the higher law of the Lord, which " is 
perfect, converting the soul," the gospel of Christ, the power 
of God unto salvation, and the law of the Spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus, freeing me from the law of sin and death. This 
experiment I have repeated continuously, from time to time, 
for more than half a century, in my own case ; and witnessed 
the same in the cases of scores and hundreds of other sinners 
who professed to hope in a moral renovation. And I have 
never seen, heard or read of the human subject that had ever 
experienced, or felt, or known any moral change for the bet- 
ter, but what had been produced by the motive influence of 
truth, or the will of God embodied in human language, and 
acting as an essential constituent of a composite divine per- 
son, viz., the Holy Ghost. The divine Mediator and Saviour 
of men has never, to my knowledge, desired or asked God to 
produce any moral or saving change in any sinner of the hu- 
man race, but by the motive influence of truth thus applied. 
" Sanctify them through thy truth : thy w^ord is truth." Jno. 



124 TmXITY OF TEKSOXS IX THE GODHEAD. 

xvii. 17. And I have never been able to learn, thongh I tried 
for years, that it was possible, even for omnipotent God, to 
produce any saving or moral change for the better, by any 
other influence in the universe besides the motive influence of 
truth, persuading the subject to cease doing evil and begin to 
do right. Therefore, I do not and can not know how to begin 
to doubt the truths Avhich I have endeavored to state con- 
cerning the divine persons, and the manner in which they are 
constituted. But I do know that what I believe and aflirm 
concerning the persons of the Godhead, the incarnation of the 
Deity, and the perfect unity of the self-existent Being, is actual 
knowledge of the truth of God. 

Yet I know nothing at all, have no definite, or adequate, 
or expressible, or communicable conception, idea or notion of 
the real nature of the divine essence, or of the manner of his 
existence, or of any numerical or other distinction in his be- 
ing, or of his essential attributes, (farther than included in his 
infinite wisdom, power and goodness,) nor of the extent of 
his purposes, volitions and designs. Being a finite, frail, and 
feeble creature, I feel totally incompetent adequately to con- 
ceive of infinities, or to wield them successfully in ratiocina- 
tion. I must, therefore, be excused for omitting them while 
treating of created subjects and events. If, however, I have 
succeeded in giving an intelligible analysis of my own thoughts 
on this subject, the practical results of the discussion may be 
easily apprehended. 

1st. These two essential and fundamental doctrines of 
Christianity, the incarnation of the Deity and the trinity of 
persons in the Godhead, thus divested of mysticism, are left 
plain, simple, Bible truths, fully manifested and plainly re- 
vealed to the understanding and entire comprehension of all 
fallen men who desire to understand them, and are willing to 
bestow the necessary thought and attention. But this by no 
means implies that all men will understand or believe these 
doctrines while in the flesh. Many men are evil doers, and 
every one that doeth evil hatetli the light of truth, neither 
Cometh to the light. Nor does it imply that all Christians 
will correctly or fully understand and believe ; though no 



INCARNATION OF DEITY. 125 

mnn can be a real Cliristian without apprehending and practi- 
cally believing them. Xor does it imply that even the ma- 
jority of Christian ministers and teachers, at any particular 
period, have or will understand these sublime doctrines in all 
their relations and influences. It must appear vanity and pre- 
sumption for any uninspired teacher to pretend perfectly to 
understand them in all their relations, importance, and bear- 
ings ; because all men, even the most wise and holy, are liable 
to be influenced more or less by the law of sin and death, that 
is, by falsehood. But it does imply that the whole truth con- 
cerning these sublime doctrines, so far as they are connected 
with or may in any manner modify the Christian system of 
doctrine, or the work of man's salvation, is clearly revealed : 
so that every human agent who is interested or needs salva- 
tion may, by a proper use of his natural endowments, under- 
stand and fully avail himself of their influence and benefits, in 
performing his whole duty and securing his own everlasting 
salvation. So much, at least, the Apostle Paul has told us, 
1 Tim. iii. 16 : '' God was manifested in the flesh, justified in 
the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the gentiles, believed 
on in the world, received up into glory." 

2d. In the light of the few facts stated, respecting the 
meaning of the term Godhead, and the nature of personality 
and its uses, a plain common sense meaning is reflected from 
every w^ord and sentence in the Bible which mentions or al- 
ludes to the subject of the trinity, divine personality or in- 
carnation ; a meaning definite, clear, precise, and easy to be 
understood and comprehended by any human intellect suffi- 
ciently developed to distinguish between right and w^rong, 
and transgress the higher law : provided such intelligent is 
desirous and willing to know and understand, and willing to 
bestow the necessary thought and attention on the subject. 

For example, the declaration of the Psalmist, (Ps. ii. 7,) in 
the person of the infinite, self-existent God, he affirms, ''• Thou 
art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee." Here the rela- 
tion of sonship is affirmed. The exact date of the commence- 
ment of this relation is stated. '' This day." Meaning the 
very day, because it can mean no other, than the day when 



126 TRIXITY OF PEKSONS IX THE GODIIExVD. 

the Holy Ghost came on the virgin, and the power of the 
Highest overshadowed her. Therefore, (said the angel,) that 
holy thing, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the 
Son of God. Luke i. 35. The method in which this relation- 
ship was created, and the agents concerned in producing it, 
are unmistakably designated. " The Holy Ghost, the High- 
est, a virgin espoused, and the virgin's name was called 
Mary." But though the Sonship was then and thus consti- 
tuted, no personality could attach to the relations, or to the 
human correlate, till the moral susceptibilities of the child 
Jesus were sufficiently developed to understand the nature 
of law, to feel obligation and obey his heavenly Father. 
Therefore, the personal form of language was omitted in the 
description, and this Son of God, after his birth and begetting 
by the power of the Highest, must be called a mere thing ; a 
holy thing, to be sure, in the tropical sense, as other things 
consecrated to the service of God ; but in itself a mere thing, 
as destitute of j^ersonality and moral character as any other 
human animal at its birth. 

Again, Jno. i. 1, 2, "In the beginning w^as the Word, and 
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same 
was in the beginning with God." Here the personality of the 
Logos is definitely fixed in the finite, in relation to time. The 
commencement of the relation is located precisely at the be- 
ginning of the mediatorial kingdom, or administration of grace 
to apostate men, over which this person was constituted King, 
Mediator, Redeemer and Saviour. As the relation of Son- 
ship did not then exist between God and men, in the literal 
sense, and as the administration of the kingdom of grace com- 
menced by a revelation of the purposes of God concerning the 
fallen race in pronouncing sentence on their tempter, the Lo- 
gos, or Word, was the proper, and the only proper term to 
designate the new personality then, there, and thus consti- 
tuted. And Moses has dotted doAvn the date of this new 
personal relationship between God and man in the cool of the 
very day, when the subjects of grace came into existence by 
eating the forbidden fruit. Gen. iii. 8. Just when the will 
and gracious purpose of God, embodied in human language, 



INCARXATIOX OF DEITY. 127 

first fell on the physically depraved annual organs of human 
sensation ; in the very act which commenced the administra- 
tion of grace to the guilty culprits ; the first act of Mediator- 
ship ever performed ; at the very point of time and place in 
the garden of Eden where God, m the person of the divine 
Logos, convicted the first sinner of the human family ; and in 
the person of the divine Comforter, the Holy Ghost, or Avord 
of truth, converted, regenerated, gave peace and comfort to 
the first penitent believer in the Mediator. " In the begin- 
ning was the Word." Jno. i. 1. After the incarnation these 
personifications of the Deity are very properly and signifi- 
cantly designated by the names Son and Holy Ghost. '' And 
the Word, or Logos, was made flesh, and dwelt among us, 
(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten 
of the Father,) full of grace and truth." Jno. i. 14. Here is 
no mystery ; nothing inexplicable ; nothing above the com- 
prehensioji of any common sense reader who is willing to 
think and understand. 

The passage, Isa. ix. 6, and its parallel, Tim. iii. 16, have 
been often represented as full of profound and awful mys- 
teries, utterly inexplicable and incomprehensible to all human 
intelligence. But there is nothing mysterious or incompre- 
hensible in the truth that an omnipresent God, of infinite wis- 
dom, power and goodness, should be able to assume any rela- 
tion to any of his works, at any time or place, provided the 
relation does not involve a contradiction ; or to put himself 
in the most perfect personal unity with any being who occu- 
pies any portion of that infinite space which he pervades but 
does not occupy. Now, in the light of this plain common 
sense truth, these passages are just as easily understood and 
comprehended as the history of the child Jesus, or any other 
child that was ever born. The manifestation in the flesh, the 
childhood, sight by angels, government shouldered, the Won- 
derful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, 
the Prince of Peace, all follow each other in perfect harmony 
with universal common sense. To be sure, the subjects 
treated of in these passages are the most mysterious, pro- 
found, sublime and glorious, ever conceived by created intel- 



128 TRIXITY OF TERSOXS IX THE GODHEAD. 

lect. But the flicts stated concerning tliem in this language 
are just as easily understood, by those willing to understand, 
as the simplest facts that pass before their senses daily. And 
they are facts that perfectly concur, in all their relations and 
connections, with the normal intuitions of unperverted human 
intellect or common sense. 

3d. We learn, from this discussion, that the common sense 
and perfectly intelligible testimony of God, in the Bible, puts 
every thing pertaining to the trinity, the incarnation, the 
Mediator, the Redeemer, the Son of God, the Holy Ghost, 
the Comforter, their w^orks of grace and the saving conse- 
quences to fallen men, as far as they pertain to Christianity, 
entirely within the sphere of the Unite, in relation both to 
time and space ; and thus brings them within the proper and 
legitimate sphere of human intellectual comprehension ; and 
thus divests the Christian system of doctrines of one numer- 
ous category of incomprehensible dogmas and inexplicable 
mysticisms, which are constituted by predicating infinities 
and eternities of created finite beings, relations, endowments, 
qualities, etc. Such, for example, as the eternal Sonship of 
Jesus Christ, eternal generation of the Son, eternal procession 
of the Spirit, eternal punishment, eternal misery, infinite evil 
of sin, infinite guilt, infinite justice, grace, mercy or goodness, 
conferred on finite objects. In all the relations existing, or 
that may exist, between God and his creatures, one of the 
parties of the corelation necessarily exists in the infinite, and 
the other in the finite. When, therefore, the infinites and 
eternals of the self-existent Deity are predicated of the finite 
creature, a solecism is perpetrated, a gross absurdity is ut- 
tered, a positive contradiction is afiSrmed, and the result is 
infinite nonsense or mysticism. But the pure light of revealed 
truth, with all the normal intuitions of human intellect and 
the dictates of common sense, place these inexplicable dogmas 
of eternal beginnings and infinite finitudes in the category of 
theological romance or metaphysical fiction. We are not 
quite able yet to force infinities into finite dimensions of either 
time or space. Nor can we add supernatural power to om- 
nipotence, till we first find a beginning or end to infinity. 



INCARXATIOX OF DEITY. 129 

Hence those religious teachers, who can find no influence in 
the universe adequate to any saving change but the super- 
natural power of God, are in the habit, whenever they intro- 
duce the subject of moral renovation, of undeifying the Deity 
himself, to make room for the introduction of their own super- 
natural mysticism. 

4th. If our positions respecting the meaning of the terms 
Godhead, personality and incarnation, be correct, it is very 
easy to sec, in the light of this discussion, that the princij)al 
topics of controversy between Arians and Trinitarians, or 
Unitarians and orthodox Calvinists, w^hich have disturbed the 
Church and the world for ages, and depopulated and deluged 
with innocent blood vast provinces of Christendom, are mere 
theological romances, the visionary productions of depraved 
human imagination ; and that these inexplicable romances 
(called mysteries of godliness) have no more relation to Chris- 
tian theology, and can have no more influence on the rela- 
tions, duties, interest or conditions of moral agents, than the 
dreams of lunacy. But when Christianity shall be divested 
of these infinite predicates of finite beings, relations and quali- 
ties, and similar mysteries, the conflict of ages will pass from 
the Church, as harmlessly and as quick as the astronomer's 
awful monster, with a proboscis forty miles long, left the 
moon when the midge left the lens of his telescope. And 
then the splendid intellectual talents, the vast amounts of 
labor, time, treasure and efibrt, which for ages have been 
wasted in the conflict, may be appropriated to propagating 
the gospel of Christ, "the power of God unto salvation." 
And the possibility of evangelizing the world may again 
become visible, as in the first century, after the day of Pen- 
tecost. 

6* 



III. 
THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH. 



INTRODUCTION. 

In the seventh and eighth chapters of the Epistle to the 
Romans the Apostle describes a law, which he found still 
abiding in his members, after his regeneration, and bringing 
him into captivity, to the law of sin. This law he contrasts 
repeatedly with the law of God, and with the law of his 
mind, and shows their perfect contrariety and opposition to 
each other. In chapter vii. 24, he represents the influence 
of this law of sin and death as a most grievous burden and 
profound affliction to his soul. But at the same time, he 
rejoices with thanksgiving in the sure prospect of perfect 
deliverance from this affliction, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
In chapter viii. 2, he ascribes his deliverance from the law of 
sin and death, to "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus." We learn also from the whole context, that this law 
of the Spiiit of life in Christ Jesus, can mean nothing else, less 
or more, than the law of God and the law of his mind, or 
that law, obedience to which, had since his conversion, become 
the generic volition of his mind, or the ruling purpose of his 
soul. This law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus consists of 
that entire revelation of the will of God to men for their sal- 
vation, contained in the Bible, including the moral law and the 
gospel of Christ, with all the illustrations of the same, con- 
tained in the history and ordinances of the church. The 
Apostle tells us, chapter viii. 3 ; that this higher law was 
weak through the flesh, antecedent to the revelation of the 
great mystery of godliness, the incarnation of the Deity. 
Previous to such revelation, or exclusive of that important 
fact, the moral law was not competent to deliver the sinner 
from the law of sin and death. But when this mystery was 
revealed to the sinner, who had fallen under the influence 



132 INTRODUCTION. 

of the law of sin and death, it became able to save the soul 
of the believing sinner. Or, it became what Paul affirms of 
it, "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believ- 
eth." Or, as David describes it, it was "perfect, converting 
the soul." Or, as expressed in this connection, it became 
" the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," freeing the 
believing sinner from the influence and consequences of his 
past transgressions. That this is the true meaning of the pass- 
age appears obvious from the effect and final result ascribed 
in the subsequent context. The effect was " That the right- 
eousness of the law might be fullfilled in us, who walk not 
after the flesh, but after the Spirit." The final result ascribed 
was the deliverance of the creature itself, that is the regene- 
rated believer, " From the bondage of corruption into the 
glorious liberty of the children of God ;" or, into the adoption, 
to wit, the redemption of the body. 

Now if this law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, free the 
sinner from the law of sin and death — If it convert the soul 
— If it be able through faith to save the soul, and be the real 
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth — If 
the law of sin and death be a ^^erfect contrariety to the law 
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus — If the contrast which the 
Apostle exhibits in the passages quoted, be a true and just 
contrast — If so, we may infer with entire confidence, that a 
correct analysis of the law of sin and death, must exhibit the 
true theory of human depravity; or, of that state of sin, 
guilt, and misery, from which God the infinite Spirit saves sin- 
ners, through the redemption wrought by Christ. If the law 
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, furnish a complete remedy 
for the plague of sin and its fatal consequences, then the law of 
sin must, when analyzed, develop the entire cause of the 
disease, and its consequents, from which the sinner is saved. 

In order to obtain a correct analysis of the law of sin and 
death, it will be necessary : 1st. To ascertain what sin is, how 
it is created, and what is its specific nature. 2nd. To define 
the true signification of the term law, in this peculiar relation 
to sin. 3d. To trace the process by which sin operates on the 
subject from its first inception, till it issues in death. 



SIN, ITS ORIGIN AND NATURE. 133 

CHAPTER I. 

SIN. — HOW ORIGINATED. — ITS NATURE. 

1st. What is sin ? The thing called sin is by Paul very 
often personified, and a variety of agency, action and conse- 
quents ascribed to it. But the meaning of the word sin, is 
perhaps as definitely fixed, and as precisely limited to a single 
thing, as the meaning of any other word. 

It is a very few times used metaphorically in the Bible to 
signify a propitiatory sacrifice for sin. Perhaps once or twice, 
to signify the punishment incurred by sin. "And the calves of 
Jeroboam are once called the sin of Samaria." But the literal 
meaning of the word, is uniformly limited to one identical 
thing; and our inquiry relates to that very thing : the thing 
that incurs guilt, and that exposes the author to penal suffer- 
ing. In the First Epistle of John, iii. 4, we have a clear, full, 
and precise definition of sin, by the inspired Apostle. " Who- 
soever committeth sin, transgresseth also the law, for sin is 
the transgression of the law." This definition fixes the mean- 
ing of the term sin to a particular relation, and limits it exclu- 
sively to that specific relation alone. The particular relation 
to which sin is limited by this definition, is the relation which 
the voluntary action of a moral agent sustains to- the law of 
God, when such agent transgresses that law. 

The use of the relative " whosoever," extends the meaning 
of this definition to every sinning agent of the human family, 
and to every act of transgression, of each sinning agent. The 
use of the adverb " also," identifies exclusively every act of 
transgression, with the odious thing called sin. And the use 
of the conjunction " for," unites inseparably every thing that 
may be called sin, or sinful, to the specific relation, designated 
as transgression of the law. " For sin is the transgression 
of the law." So that to predicate sin of any thing that does 
not amount to actual transgression, or does not sustain that 
specific relation to the law of God, is solecistic and false. 
Or to impute sin to any agent, whose character does not in- 



134 SIN, ITS ORIGIN AND NATURE. 

elude that relation to the law, is a false and slanderous accusa- 
tion. "For sin is not imputed, when there is no law," Rom. 
V. 13; "And where no law is, there is no transgression." 
Rom. iv. 15. It is therefore perfectly obvious that certain 
antecedents must in every case exist, before it is possible that 
sin should exist. 

1st. A supreme moral governor, whose rightful prerogative it 
is to enact laws, or prescribe a rule of moral action, must pre- 
exist. 2nd. A moral agent capable of understanding law and 
feeling obligation. 3d. A law actually pronounced, or enact- 
ed by the rightful Sovereign. 4th. The agent must have 
known, perceived, or understood, what the law required, 
and must have felt the obligation which the law imposed. 
5th. He must have been free to act, and must have possessed 
the ability to act, either in obedience or transgression of the 
law, according to his own volition or choice. 6th. Some motive 
influence to act must have been perceived, felt, or supposed 
by the agent. 7th. The agent must have really acted, and 
must have put forth that particular kind of action, or acted in 
that manner or direction, which constitutes transgression of 
the law before sin could exist. 

The common sense of all mankind, the intuition of all human 
intellect, teaches the absolute necessity of the existence of all, 
and of each of these antecedents, before sin can possibly exist 
in the case of any human agent. The Bible uniformly, dis- 
tinctly, and without any exception, teaches the same absolute 
necessity. " For by the law is the knowledge of sin," Rom. 
iii. 20 ; " For where no law is there is no transgression," Rom. 
iv. 15 ; " Nay I had not known sin, but by the law : for I had 
not known lust except the law had said thou shalt not covet," 
Rom. vii. 7. The only law recognized in the Bible as binding 
on human agents, or, as giving moral character to their volun- 
tary actions, is that higher law of the Lord, which is perfect, 
converting the soul, which Paul calls the gospel of Christ, the 
power of God unto salvation, and by which he afiirms, all men 
shall be judged, and the retributions of his moral kingdom be 
distributed, " in the day when God shall judge the secrets 
of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel," Rom. ii. 



SIN, ITS OKIGIX AND NATURE. 135 

6-16 ; "But sin is not imputed, when there is no law," Ronu 
V. 13. 

No person of common sense, when as a magistrate, judge, 
or juror, he is called to judge of the conduct of his fellow 
creature, ever imputes crime to him, till he is convinced of 
the existence of all these antecedents. If any one of them is 
lacking, or is not fully proved to have existed, by the testi- 
mony exhibited, his verdict is, not guilty. And the Bible 
contains not a word or syllable imputing sm or guilt to a 
human agent, where all or any of these antecedents is not 
affirmed, or necessarily presupposed. 

Hence, those persons who predicate sin, or guilt, or innate 
moral depravity, of human nature, or of any human agent, or 
of any endowment, emotion or susceptibility of a human agent, 
antecedent to the voluntary action of such agent, under the 
motive influence of law, or before he has actually transgressed, 
are in a great error. They err in affirming what they do not 
know ; and what their own common sense, or the normal in- 
tuitions of their own intellect tell them is false. They err in 
affirming what contradicts the word of God, and the eternal 
and unchangeable principles of moral rectitude as conceived by 
themselves. When they quote the word of God to prove their 
affirmations, they misunderstand, misinterpret, and grossly per- 
vert and falsify the scriptures. For example, they quote Eph. 
ii. 3. "And were by nature the children of wrath even as 
others," to prove that human agents are born sinners, are 
morally depraved w^hen they come into the world, and are 
guilty before they have done any thing, or knovm any thing, 
or commenced voluntary action. But the Apostle says no- 
thing of the kind in that passage, nor makes the least allusion 
to the character or condition of human agents at their birth, 
or antecedent to their voluntary action, under motive influence 
of law. The Apostle tells us, that the saints at Ephesus, and 
himself also, at the time of their conversion, had become liable 
to suffer wrath, as the natural consequence of a continuous 
course of actual voluntary transgression of the law of God ; 
or, as the natural result of walking in time past, according to 
the course of this world, according to the prince of the power 



136 SIN, ITS OEIGIN AND NATURE. 

of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of diso- 
bedience, and having their conversation in the lusts of the flesh, 
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. The condi- 
tion expressed by the metaphor " children of wrath," is a con- 
dition acquirable only by actual transgression of the law of 
God, by deeds done in the body. And whenever scripture is 
quoted to prove innate moral depravity or sin, or guilt, or lia- 
bility to penal suffering, antecedent to positive transgression 
of law, it is perverted, and the testimony of God is falsified. 

The inquiry may here be suggested, how does it happen, 
that so many learned, great, and pious theologians, have for 
ages thus erred and perverted the language of inspiration ? I 
answer, it has so happened, because their own minds have been 
first perverted by adopting the false pagan dogma of Platonic 
philosophy, that every antecedent is of the same nature and 
moral quality as its consequent, and that the consequent always 
derives its moral character from the antecedent. That is, the 
sinner commits sin solely because he was a sinner, before he 
committed sin. 

It is true that human agents, in consequence of the sin of 
their antecedents, are born with a depraved physical organiza- 
tion. They come into the world, and commence their exist- 
ence in a vitiated, frail, sickly and dying animal body. In 
consequence of this, their animal instincts, appetites and pas- 
sions, are vitiated, disordered and precociously developed, and 
often become uncontrollable, before the moral sense begins to 
be developed. While on the other hand, the intellectual and 
moral susceptibilities, for want of a healthy and elastic physi- 
cal machine, or animal body, are for a length of time, more or 
less, retarded in their development, and in a large proportion 
of the race, are never developed at all into a moral agent, 
or, an accountable subject of moral government, while they 
continue in the flesh. In the case of those human agents who 
live to develop their moral sense, and begin to form a moral 
character, these vitiated animal instincts, appetites and pas- 
sions, increased and aggravated by social circumstances, by 
defective and vicious training, and foolish indulgence, have 
generally surrounded them with numerous motive influences 



Snsr, ITS ORIGIN AND NATURE. 137 

tending to induce them to commit sin, when they commence 
moral agency. After their intellectual and moral susceptibili- 
ties are sufficiently developed to act under the motive influ- 
ence of law, and give in.oral character to their actions ; these 
motive influences to sin, prevail in their partially developed 
minds, over the motive influences of the law, and they choose 
to transgress, rather than obey. And each one for himself 
originates sin, incurs guilt, contracts moral depravity, and 
commences the formation of a sinful character. Each one by 
the free voluntary action of his own will, in view of such 
motives as are present in the case and at the time, gives that 
moral hue to his action which constitutes it a sin. And this 
vicious and odious hue, which constitutes the sin, exists and is 
seen only in the relation which the voluntary action sustains 
to the law of God. It is this relation to the law called trans- 
gression, which alone is ever called sin in the Bible. And the 
sin is exclusively the sin of the agent, who puts forth the 
act of transgression : it constitutes a portion of his moral 
character, because he is the sole author and cause of its exist- 
ence. He created it ; he brought it into being by his own vol- 
untary action. His volition was the immediate and invari- 
able antecedent. Thus, every individual human agent to 
whom sin is imputed in the word of God, or, can be justly 
imputed, or whose character sustains the least taint of moral 
evil, has himself originated the same, by the free voluntary 
action of his own will under motive influence of the law of 
God. 

So much for the present may suflice concerning the origin 
of sin, in the case of every individual in whose character, con- 
dition, or relations, the thing exists. And so much the common 
sense of all men, and the uniform testimony of the word of 
God, teach us without exception or contradiction. 

With respect to the nature of sin, we have already discov- 
ered that it is the distinguishing quality of a certain specific 
relation. Its opposite or contrast is called holiness, or right- 
eousness, which qualifies another and perfectly opposite relation 
to the law of God. These two qualities distinguish all the 
relations of all the voluntary actions of moral agents, to the 



138 SIN, ITS ORIGIN AND NATURE. 

law of God, into two classes, good and bad, right and wrong, 
holiness and sin. And the characters of the agents or authors 
of such actions, are distinguished into good and bad, holy and 
sinful, only by the quaUties of these relations to the law of 
God. The moral characters of the subjects of the divine gov- 
ernment are made up exclusively of actions bearing such 
relations to the higher law. 

As the relations of things have no actual existence separate 
from the things thus related, so also the qualities of such rela- 
tions, can have no substantive or real existence separate from 
the relations thus qualified. It is obvious, therefore, that sin 
can have no real existence in the abstract, but can only co-exist 
with the relation it qualifies. And that relation can only 
co-exist with the action thus related. But action considered 
abstractly, that is, separate from the agent, or cause of it, and 
his relations to the law, and the lawgiver, is a mere event 
without any moral quality or desert. Suppose the action to 
be a stroke, which causes the death of a man. If the author 
of it be an idiot, or a brute animal, or if it be caused by a 
piece of wood, moved by physical influence only, there is no 
sin committed, because there is no relation in the case, to 
which that quality can attach. And there is no such relation, 
because there is no agent, whose action can sustain such rela- 
tion. Volition under the influence of conscience, or the moral 
sense, being an essential attribute of the agent, who can sus- 
tain such relation. Therefore, sin, in its very nature, and 
guilt its immediate consequent, are inseparable from the agent, 
who originates, or brings into being the sinful action. It 
pertains exclusively to his personal identity, and can no more 
be separated from him, and become the sin and guilt of an- 
other, than his identity can be separated and become the 
identity of another agent. 

Again, such is the nature of sin, that it can not be truly 
predicated of any person or thing, but a free moral agent, 
acting under the motive influence of the higher law, or of the 
character or voluntaiy action of such agent. The relation, 
which sin qualifies, is relation to the law. But the act can 
have no relation to law, unless it be performed under the mo- 



ST^^, ITS ORTGI^T AND NATURE. 139 

tive influence of the law, either in concurrence with, or 
against it. And the agent can sustain no relation to law, nor 
act with any reference to law, till he understands what the 
law requires. The law may exist, and exhibit paramount ob- 
ligations to act in a certain method, but it can exercise no 
motive influence on any agent, till such agent understands the 
requirements of the law, and feels obligation imposed by the 
law. Therefore, because my sin is created, brought into ex- 
istence, or caused to be, solely by my voluiUary action in 
transgressing the law, it necessarily follows, that the agency 
of no other being can ever make me a sinner, not even 
omnipotence. The sin of other agents may bear the relation 
of remote antecedence, to my sin, and may thus present mo- 
tive influences to induce me to sin. But they cannot cause 
the existence of my sin, because every intelligent being is a 
cause, an adequate cause, an efiicient cause, an original cause, 
and the sole or only cause of his own actions. Motive influ- 
ences may be necessary antecedents to voluntary action. But 
they cannot be immediate antecedents or cause to the moral 
quality of voluntary action. For the moral quality of the action 
is always created by the volition or choice of the agent, in view 
of these antecedent motive influences ; and because no ante- 
cedent can be the cause of an event, but an immediate and 
invariable antecedent. If it be not an immediate antecedent, 
some other antecedent must intervene as the true cause. If 
it be not an invariable antecedent the event, or change, may 
take place without it, and therefore cannot depend upon it in 
the relation of cause. Thus the volition of the agent always 
intervenes between the moral quality of his action, and all 
motive influence to act, either right or wrong ; and every 
agent, in order to act responsibly and give his actions moral 
character, must necessarily act with entire freedom and perfect 
ability to concur with or reject and resist, either the less or 
the greater, the most j)owerful or the weakest motive influ- 
ence, according to his own choice. And because the higher 
law, with its paramount motive influences, must necessarily be 
present when it is transgressed, sin cannot be committed but 
in opposition to the strongest motive influence present, and no 



140 TnE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH DEFINED. 

motive influence can cause or necessitate the moral character 
of voluntary action, either good or bad. Therefore the ex- 
istence of sin, antecedent to the voluntary action of the sub- 
ject, under the motive influence of the law of the Lord, is an 
absolute moral impossibility. 



CHAPTEE II. 

THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH DEFINED. 

In what sense is the word law used, when predicated of sin, 
as in the phrase " the law of sin," used by Paul to the Ro- 
mans ? There are two significations of the term law, as used 
in the Bible, the one literal and the other metaphorical. When 
used in the literal sense, it always signifies or implies some 
rule of action, prescribed by rightful authority, imposing obli- 
gation on an intelligent moral agent. In this primary and 
literal sense the word is used in a great variety of relations, 
both in the Bible, in other books and in common parlance. 
Thus we read of the law of the Lord, the moral law, the law 
of the state, the municipal law^, the law of nations and the law 
of nature. In all such cases a rule of action by rightful au- 
thority and obligation imposed are expressed or implied. But 
in this literal sense it can never be truly or properly applied 
to sin. For sin in all its aspects, in every possible relation, is 
transgression of the law. But in the metaphorical sense law 
is often used to signify any uniform or invariable method, in 
which relative changes succeed each other. Thus in reference 
to animal development, we speak of the laws of animal Hfe and 
health. In this sense we have the laws of vegetation, the law 
of gravitation, and a great variety of physical law^s. In all 
these cases there is implied certain invariable conditions, and 
a uniform method, in which the successive changes take place, 
to reach the ultimate result. And if these conditions fail, or 
this method be interrupted, the result must fail. Such is the 
law of sin and death. 



THE LAW OF SIX AND DEATH DEFINED. 141 

The i^rocess by which, in the case of any human subject of 
moral government, sin issues in death, is supposed to depend 
on certain conditions, and to proceed in a certain method, and 
when these fail or are interrupted, the result will not come to 
pass. If in the present state of probation under the dispensa- 
tion of grace, any human agent transgresses the law of God, 
he thereby becomes a sinner, and puts himself voluntarily 
imder the motive inlluence of the law of sin and death. 
Though the sin of his predecessors has had a most malignant 
and lamentable influence on his condition and circumstances as 
an intelhgent agent and sensitive being, even before his ac- 
tual transgression ; yet he himself remains innocent. The 
malignant influence has not yet reached his voluntary ac- 
tion, nor attainted his moral character with pravity or guilt. 
His nature, as an intellectual being, as a moral agent, and 
a subject of moral government, is as free from sin, and as 
incapable of penal infliction and sufiering, as it was the moment 
it came from the hand of the infinite Creator, in the case of 
Adam. Because he hath not yet transgressed ; and because 
under God's free and perfect government, innocent subjects 
are not made slaves, because some of their ancestors were vile 
enough to sell themselves into bondage. 

The great leading principle, or first section of the law of sin 
and death, is well defined by the Saviour, in his discourse with 
Nicodemus, John, iii. 20 ; " For every one that doeth evil 
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds 
should be reproved." This definition is very plain, simple, and 
and easily understood. It was perfectly illustrated and its 
truth confirmed, in the case of the first transgression ever 
committed by a human agent. It is also experimentally 
proved and perfectly understood, by every agent who com- 
mits an evil deed. He declares by his actions, as Adam and 
Eve did, that he understands it, that he sees it, that he feels 
and knows it, in every nerve of his body, and every emotion 
of his soul. Or, as Job describes the murderer, the thief, the 
adulterer and burglar; see Job, xxiv. 13-17; "They are of those 
that rebel against the light ; they know not the ways thereof, 
nor abide in the paths thereof. For the morning is to them 



142 THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH DEFINED. 

even as the shadow of death ; if one know them, they are in 
the terrors of the shadow of death." The process by which 
this definition is confirmed, may be thus explained. The first 
sin, that a human agent ever commits, is committed in the 
light, and under the motive influence of the higher law ; for it 
is impossible to commit sin, or that sin should come into ex- 
istence at all, in any other circumstances. For the very nature 
and being of sin depends exclusively on its relationship to that 
law, as the apostle affirms. "Nay, I had not known sin, but 
by the law : for I had not known lust except the law had said, 
Thou shalt not covet," Rom. vii. 7. As soon as the first evil 
deed is perpetrated, the light of truth shining in his own in- 
tellectual nature, reflects from that perfect mirror, his true 
character, depicted in all the odious deformity and blackness 
of guilt ; with death standing right behind him, with his 
scythe already swung to cut him down, and the flames of hell 
rolling to receive and torment his guilty soul. For w^e must 
here remember the perfection of the law of the Lord, which 
executes its penal sanction, by its own moral influence, inde- 
pendent of all other agencies or influences. As in the case ol 
Adam, '' In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." 
And but for the interposition of grace, they had sunk to per- 
dition, and the whole race been extinguished that very day. 
But every sensitive being is by the Creator endowed with a 
strong and adequate array of instincts, appetites and passions, 
for his own j^rotection, preservation and defence. These en- 
dowments are an essential part of his nature. Without these 
no species of sensitive beings could be kept long in existence. 
These instincts, appetites and passions are all in themselves 
perfectly innocent or without moral character, and in the 
normal state of human agents, were always under the perfect 
control of the reason, will and conscience. But they may by 
mismanagement, provociXion and undue excitement, become 
vitiated and uncontrollable. Yet they are always ready, on 
the first emotion of fear, or pain, or apprehension of danger, 
to act for self-defence, and immediately call into action every 
other endowment, mental and physical, for the same purpose. 
But the very first reflection of the guilty conscience, after 



THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH DEFINED. 143 

ti-ansgression, presents a specter, which awakens the most 
Iiorrific emotion of terror, shame, self-abhorrence and painful 
anticipation. The hght of truth in the higher law, because it 
reflects or discovers this horrid specter to the conscience, 
seems to the deluded sinner, to be the cause of all his bitter 
emotions, his shame, fear, and painful apprehensions. There- 
fore he hates and shuns it, and all his self-preservative endow- 
ments are arrayed against the light, and every means of 
excluding it is put in requisition. And the only successful 
means is to employ and engross the entire intellectual endow- 
ment of the agent, in physical attainments and sensual enjoy- 
ment. In this manner the law of sin and death operated in 
the case of Adam and Eve. And in the same manner it 
operates in the case of every transgressor ; as Job describes 
in the passage quoted, " The morning is to them, even as the 
shadow of death." But this is all voluntary self-deception, or 
lying to his own understanding and conscience, or as Isaiah 
expresses it, having a lie in his right hand. Not the light of 
truth, but his own transgression is the sole cause of all his 
sufferings and slavish fears. The light of truth in the higher 
law, is the only medium, through which he can see his true 
character. But in transgressing he voluntarily yielded him- 
self to the guidance of falsehood, and still chooses to be 
deceived, rather than return to the direction of truth, the only 
rule of duty. Eve knew that the serpent lied, and that 
to transgress was wrong, but she chose to try tlie experiment 
of yielding to a lie, for the sake of the promised j)leasure. And 
every transgressor, w^ho commits an evil deed, does the same. 
He knows what is right and does w^hat is wrong, he chooses 
deception, prefers falsehood to truth, and loves darkness rather 
than light ; because the light reproves his evil deeds, or re- 
flects his deformed, polluted character, the sight of which is 
tormenting to his soul. This hating the light of truth, and 
turning from it, rejecting it as a rule of action, and closing the 
mental vision against it, is a second transgression of the higher 
law. For the very first intuition of conscience, after the con- 
ception of a supreme moral governor, is, " Thou shalt keep my 
commandments, and do all my will." And the written law is 



144 THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH DEFINED. 

full of similar injunctions. And it is an evil deed of a higher 
order, and of a more aggravated and malignant criminality, 
because committed more directly against the person, and sov- 
ereignty of the lawgiver. For the light of truth, thus hated 
and rejected is nothing else, but the perfect law of the Lord. 
And this higher law is nothing else, but the holy will of God, 
his eternal purpose, his unchangeable decree, the pure desire 
of his soul. That is, it is God himself, who is light and in 
whom is no darkness at all, emitting the light and glory of his 
infinite perfection, for the life and felicity of his intelligent 
creatures. 

This second step of moral depravation, under the law of sin 
and death, sweeps away the whole first table of the higher 
law, from the conscience of the wnner. It is a positive act of 
high treason against the government of heaven, and against 
the person of its holy sovereign. His first transgression 
might have been a mere trespass against some temporal right 
of his neighbor, or only a violation of some law of animal life 
or health, against his own interest or comfort. But hatred of 
the light, and aversion to it, is actual rebellion against the law 
of the universe, against the law of love, the source of all hap- 
piness, even against the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus, the only saving influence in the universe. God himself 
is the real object of all this hostility to the light of truth, for 
" God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." And this 
same advancing step of moral dejoravation is repeated at every 
successive voluntary act of transgression, till the sinner re- 
pents, turns and submits cheerfully to the influence of the 
higher law. It is easy, therefore, to see, that the very first sec- 
tion of the law of sin and death, is sufficient to account for 
any aggravated depth, or degree, or extent of moral depravity 
ever exhibited, or seen, or felt, or conceived of, by any human 
agent in the present state. It is equally plain that the process 
of moral depravation, where no hindering influences are inter- 
posed, may be very rapid, and reach an extreme depth of 
degradation and guilt, in a short time. 



THE INFLTTENCE OF HABIT. 145 

CHAPTEE III. 

THE INFLUENCE OF HABIT. HOW CONTRACTED. 

The next thing to be observed respecting the law of sin and 
death is the influence of habit. Human agents are creatures 
of habit. The sinner by his first act of transgression com- 
mences a habit of sinning. The next and every subsequent 
repetition of transgression, strengthens the habit and increases 
the facility of sinning. According to the Saviour's definition 
of the law of sin, the habit must strengthen with every suc- 
cessive emotion of hatred of the light of truth, and with 
every effort mental or physical to evade the light. The pro- 
cess of moral depravation, must therefore be extremely rapid ; 
and the habit of evil doing, hating the light, and evading re- 
proof, must very soon become inveterate, or what is called 
second nature, because it seems perfectly natural. And it is 
perfectly natural, though commenced years after the agent 
was born, because it is the natural consequence of continuous 
repetition. 

The rapidity of this process was clearly illustrated in the 
case of Adam and Eve. In a single day they acquired such a 
habit of evading the light of truth, that they could not answer 
their Maker the plainest question, without prevaricating and 
trying to hide their true character. Similar illustrations we 
have constantly before us in the history and experience of 
human society. The influence of habit in directing the actions 
of rational agents, even against the most settled purpose of 
their wills, is constantly exhibited in the conduct of mankind. 
And every person who has lived but a short time, and had but 
a limited experience in the world, knows how soon habits are 
acquired and how inveterate their influence becomes. 

David, the man after God's own heart, w^hose most settled 
and general purpose for many years, had been to obey the 
law of God, gives us a striking example of the influence of 
habit, in the matter of the wife of Uriah. But the experience 
of Paul recorded in the seventh chapter of Romans is perhaps 

7 



146 THE INFLUENCE OF HABIT. 

the most perfect illustration of this subject. He had antece- 
dent to hrs conversion, contracted vicious habits. But they 
were not merely sensual indulgences and vulgar transgression, 
such as constitute what is commonly called a vicious charac- 
ter. He was an eminent professor of religion from his child- 
hood; brought up in the straitest sect of the only true 
church ; liberally educated, and faithfully instructed in law and 
theology, by the most renowned professor then living. He 
personifies his sinful habits under the title of sin, and declares 
that sin had wrought in him all manner of concupiscence, that 
he was sold under sin, that he was a child of wrath, even as 
others. And even since his conversion, he was such an abject 
slave to sinful habits, that when he would do good evil was 
present with him, and the good that he would do, he did not, 
but the evil which he would not, that he did. He represents 
his character antecedent to his regeneration, by the appropri- 
ate and significant metaphors, of a death in trespasses and sins, 
and of children of wrath, and describes the method and whole 
process, by which he had brought himself into this wretched 
condition. 

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses 
and sin ; wherein in time past ye walked according to the 
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the 
air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, 
in the lusts of our flesh, fullfilling the desires of the flesh and of 
the mind ; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as 
others," Eph. ii. 1, 2, 3. Now this description tells us, as 
plainly as language can express it, that Paul and the saints at 
Ephesus had brought themselves into this condition of moral 
imbecility, or death in trespasses and sin, and made them- 
Belves children of wrath by their own voluntary action in trans- 
gressing the higher law. For trespasses can not be committed, 
or brought into existence at all, but by voluntary overt action 
of the subject. Paul, by a continuous series of actual transgres>?. 
ion, which he describes, by having his conversation in times 
past, in the lusts of the flesh, fullfilling the desires of the flesh 
and of the mind, had contracted such habits of sinful indulgence, 



ORIGINAL SIN, THE TRUE SOURCE OF ERROR. 147 

that after his conversion and comparative freedom from the 
law of sin and death, and after many years of experience in a 
life of faith and holy obedience, to the law of the Spirit of Ufe 
in Christ Jesus ; he still found these habits cleaving to his flesh 
and controlling the actions of his physical members, and often 
prevailing against the desires of his better mind, and the firm 
purposes of his renewed and sanctified freewill; and also 
against the paramount motive influence of the higher law, 
which he had resolved fully to obey. 

And every true believer knows by experience, that habits 
contracted in the flesh, by sinful indulgence of vitiated appe- 
tites and passions, adhere to the flesh, with invincible tenac- 
ity. And every person of common sense is intuitively con- 
scious that he has no sin, or guilt, or moral depravity, but 
w^hat he himself has contracted by transgressing some law. 
It is therefore perfectly evident, that neither Paul nor the 
saints at Ephesus, nor any of the faithful in Christ Jesus, ever 
had any sin or guilt, or moral depravity, or liability to wrath, 
but what they had contracted each for himself, by his own 
voluntary action in transgressing the law of God. 



CHAPTEE IV. 



ORIGINAL SIN, ETC., THE TRUE SOURCE OF ERROR. 

This law, which Paul saw in his members, consisting in 
habits of transgression and aversion to the light of truth, 
warring against the law of his mind, is the very thing, which has, 
for ages, by many pious and learned divines^ been called original 
sin, innate moral depravity, the corruption of the whole human 
nature, a sinful nature, a guilty nature and a native propensity, 
disposition, or inclination to sin. It has also been extensively 
represented as the total depravity of human nature, and total 
inability to do right or perform any right moral action. It 
has also been represented as existing in every individual of the 



148 ORIGINAL SIN, THE TRUE SOURCE OF ERROR. 

human race since the fall, in the very first moment of his being, 
antecedent to knowledge, volition and action of every kind 
and degree. It has been asserted also that this corruption of 
nature is the cause of all the actual transgression in the world. 
But sin in its very nature and in all its forms, aspects and re- 
lations, is necessarily subsequent to voluntary action, under the 
motive influence of law, and is invariably, wherever it exists, 
the consequence of such action in transgression of law. And 
when we analyze the process of moral depravation, we find 
that this proclivity to sin, aversion to the light of truth, hatred 
of God and his law% and everything else included in the defi- 
nition of original sin, by its orthodox defenders, is subsequent 
to actual transgression of law, and is the natural consequent 
of transgression. All sin has relation to law on one hand, and 
relation to a sinning agent or subject on the other. All sin 
and sinfulness must be found somewhere in the relations of these 
tw^o subjects to each other. And we actually find all sin and 
sinfulness to be the distinctive quality of that variety of rela- 
tion, which voluntary action sustains to the law, called trans- 
gression. As no relation exists before the subjects of it exist, 
therefore sin cannot exist antecedent to knowledge, volition 
and action. But original sin, according to the definition of its 
advocates, is something existing before its immediate and in- 
variable antecedent, that is, existing before the cause of its ex- 
istence, a consequent existing before its antecedent, a creature 
existing before its creator. To avoid this solicism a \ ariety of 
hypotheses, equally solecistic have been invented. Such for 
example as a covenant formed before the parties to ii, existed ; 
a seminal presence of all men in the first man, before the 
second man was created, or began to exist; a sinning by 
proxy ; and last of all, a judicial punishment inflicted on 
myriads of innocent subjects, for a single often ce of a remote 
progenitor. See Hodge on Romans^ v. 12-19. 

But the great error, in the dogmas of original sin, does not 
consist in affirming the innate depravity of the whole human 
race. For all the race, since the fall, are born physically de- 
praved. This is the natural consequence of the sin of their 
depraved antecedents. But this physical depravity is a per- 



ORIGINAL SIN, THE TRUE SOURCE OF ERROR. 140 

fectly innocent infirmity. No moral evil, no guilt, no liability 
to penal suffering, can attach to the subject, for this kind of 
depravity. Because the subject has had no agency, no voli- 
tion, no participation, in any way or manner, in oftusing this 
depravity, or in bringing it upon himself. Nor does the error 
consist in affirming that men are naturally depraved, even in 
the moral sense. For the natural consequence of transgression 
is moral depravity, and a continuous course of transgression 
always accumulates moral depravity, or strengthens the habit, 
and increases the facility, of sinning. Nor does it consist in 
affirming that all men are sinners. For all human agents, who 
live to develop manhood and form a moral character, do com- 
mit sin, and are morally depraved and guilty. But their moral 
depravity and guilt, being the consequents of their sin, are 
necessarily subsequent to, and caused by, their own actual 
transgression of the law. Nor does the great error consist in 
affirming that all men have a strong inclination, propensity or 
bias to sin, or that these traits of character are natural to all 
men. For these habits, as already shewn, are the natural con- 
sequents of transgression, and solely acquired by repeated 
transgression ; according to the law of sin and death. 

But the error, the absurdity and falsehood of the dogmas of 
original sin consist : 1st. In imputing sin, moral pravity and 
guilt to human nature. Human nature is the work of God. 
If it be sinful, God is the sinner, who made it so. For no 
other agency in the universe, but God's, ever had any hand in 
constituting human nature what it is. And human nature is 
identically the same thing now, that it was when God created 
it, at the beginning. The same in sinful men as in holy men. 
The same in Jesus Christ, as in the whole fallen race of Adam. 
He was of the same genus, man, intellectually, morally and 
physically, as all the race he came to save. He partook of the 
physical infirmities of man, even of those contracted by actual 
transgression. " God sending his own Son in the likeness of 
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh," Rom. 
viii. 3. " He took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore 
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, 
that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things 



150 ORIGINAL SIN, THE TRUE SOURCE OF ERROR. 

pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the 
people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, 
he is able to succor them that are tempted," Heb. ii. 16-18. 
Yet he was without sin, holy, harmless, undefiled and separate 
from sinners. And human nature must continue to be the 
same in the future as in the present state. For the moment 
any change takes place in the nature of any agent of the hu- 
man race, he ceases to be a human agent : he ceases to be 
answerable under the laws that govern human agents ; and he 
ceases to be accountable for any past human actions he may 
have committed. Because change of nature destroys personal 
identity. Besides, sin does not belong to nature in any sense 
whatever, but pertains exclusively to moral character, and 
therefore cannot, but falsely, be predicated of human nature in 
any case. To affirm sin of human nature, understandingly, is 
indeed slandering the Maker and Redeemer of human agents. 
It is pronouncing innocent babes guilty before they commit 
sin. It is pronouncing innocence guilty of crime. It is, there- 
fore, unjust, absurd and false. 

2d. The next gross error is committed, in affirming moral 
pravity, guilt and penal suffering of the whole race, antece- 
dent to knowledge and voluntary action under the motive in- 
fluence of law. But we have already shewn the impossibility 
of the existence of sin or guilt or penal suffering, in the case of 
any human agent, antecedent to his voluntary action under 
the motive influence of law. And everybody knows that mo- 
tive influence antecedent to knowledge is impossible; and 
that the whole race are born destitute of knowledge, and con- 
tinue without knowledge of law or moral obligation for 
years ; and that a large proportion of the race die without 
knowledge of the law, and, of course, die in perfect innocence, 
as they were born. 

3d. Another very great error and absurdity in this category, 
is the total inability of unregenerate human agents, to perform 
right moral action, or to do good. We often hear from the 
pulpit of the total inability of all men to obey the law of God, 
or perform any act that is truly good according to that law, 
or to comply with any of the requisitions of the gospel of 



ORIGINAL SIN, TUE TRUE SOURCE OF ERROR. 151 

Christ. And at the same time, and by the same teachers, we 
bear these imbeciles denounced as the most guilty and de- 
praved sinners for not doing what they are totally unable to 
do. Yet every human agent, who ever acted under motive 
influence of law, or who ever began to form a moral charac- 
ter, knows intuitively, that where ability to perform duty is 
wanting, no obligation can be imposed by any law or au- 
thority ; that where abihty is wanting, sin or crime cannot be 
committed by any agent, and guilt cannot attach in any case. 
And the word of God, from beginning to end, in every pre- 
cept, command or reproof, implicitly teaches the same ; and 
never in a single instance imputes sin, where ability is wanting. 
Inability to avoid any particular action, always divests that act 
of criminality, and the actor of guilt, however injurious it may 
be. If inability to do right and to avoid doing wrong, is 
true of any human being, his action is no longer agency in the 
moral sense, but only instrumentality. Because it can have no 
relation to law, and therefore no moral quality or character, 
either good or bad. Such a being is not a subject of moral 
government, because there is in him, no basis for obliga- 
tion to rest upon. He cannot be conscious of guilt or penal 
sufiering, or of merit or reward. He cannot be justly pun- 
ished. 

The strength of vicious habits, though it may have become 
a law in the metaphorical sense, and exercised a controlling 
influence over the actions of the agent for the time being, yet 
necessarily implies the possession and actual employment of 
all the endowments, susceptibilities and faculties, and therefore 
all the ability, for both good and bad action, which constitutes 
a moral agent, or an accountable subject of moral government. 
This must be his condition, as long as the subject is on proba- 
tion under grace. For the habit, propensity, or whatever else 
you may call it, was first contracted by actual transgression of 
the law, and its whole strength and influence have been accu- 
mulated by repeated transgression. And though the habit 
may have been so inveterate, as to repeat the act, without 
awakening any recognition by conscience at the time, or leav- 
ing any record in the memory, still the endow^ments, the sus- 



152 ORIGINAL SIN, THE TRUE SOURCE OF ERROR. 

ceptibilities and faculties of the agent continuing the same, his 
ability both physical and moral must continue to be the same 
as before he began to contract the habit. Even in case of 
those habits of vicious action which had become generic, 
controlling and inveterate, before the agent was capable of 
giving to his actions any moral character at all, before he 
knew anything about law, or was conscious of obligation, 
still this inveterate habit constituted no inability, at the time 
he first committed sin by indulging it. For if it had con- 
stituted real inability, it would have been impossible for him 
to have committed sin at all. He must have remained inno- 
cent still. For ability to obey the law is always a necessary 
antecedent circumstance in order to transgress it; ability to 
obey and transgress being identical. 

Wherefore the apostle, in describing his experience under 
the law of sin and death, never intimates the least inability, 
either moral or ph^'sical. Previous to his conversion, he was 
alive without the law, not without ability to obey the law. But 
he had contracted such a habit of evading the light of truth 
in the law, that he felt no compunctions of conscience, in a 
continuous course of sinful indulgence. He seemed to himself 
to be alive in the moral sense, though actually dead in 
trespasses and sins. After his conversion he still continued 
partially subject to the law of sin and death. But it now 
seemed like bondage to him. He felt as if he was sold 
under sin. But this bondage to sin, this proclivity to sin- 
ful indulgence, constituted no inability in his case. Because 
he was fully conscious of willing and doing right at the 
same time ; that is, of exercising all the ability of a moral 
agent, an accountable subject of moral government. " So then 
with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the 
flesh the law of sin." And while he groaned under the body 
of this death, he also exulted in thanksgiving to God, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord, that he himself was freed from this law 
of sin and death. " For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death." It 
is therefore perfectly obvious that the law of sin and death 
inflicts no inability on the subjects of it ; and equally obvious 



ORIGINAL SIN, THE TRUE SOURCE OF ERROR. 153 

that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus imparts no 
ability, in freeing his subjects from its bondage. The change 
from the influence of the one, to that of the other, or from an 
uni-egenerate state to that of a regenerate believer in Christ, 
involves no change of ability in the subject. The entire in- 
fluences of both the law of God and the law of sin, are motive 
influences. The influence of truth constitutes the whole influ- 
ence of the law of God, or the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus, even the whole power of God, to produce any moral 
change for the better. And the motive influences of the law 
of sin, are those motive influences produced and presented to 
the intellect of the agent, through the false conceptions of 
things, created by the morbid instincts, appetites and passions 
of his animal constitution, and the surrounding circumstances 
of a sinful world. Falsehood includes all the motive influence 
in the universe, to moral evil. 

This is farther illustrated, by what is said in the subsequent 
verses. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak 
through the flesh, God sending his own Son, in the likeness of 
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin, in the flesh : that the 
righteousness of the law might be fullfilled in us, who walk not 
after the flesh, but after the Spirit." This weakness did not lie 
in any imperfection of the law. " For the law of the Lord is 
perfect, converting the soul." ISTor did it consist of inability in 
the subject : but in the strength of that sinful voluntary, habit, of 
hating and evading the light of truth, which shines in the law. 
The glorious ]Drovision of grace for the salvation of transgres- 
sors, by an atoning Mediator, contained in the higher law, could 
not be apprehended by the guilty sinner; because by the first 
section of the law of sin and death, his intellectual vision was 
closed against the light of truth. It was necessary therefore 
that a special revelation of this provision of grace, and an illus- 
tration of its nature, adapted to the condition and mode of 
conception of the fallen creature, should be made. This special 
revelation was made on the very day that Eve eat the for- 
bidden fruit, and the subject fully illustrated by atypical repre- 
sentation of the sacrifice of the incarnate Mediator. God 
sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, by a sacri- 



154 ORIGINAL SIN, THE TRUE SOURCE OF ERROR. 

fice for sin, condemning sin in the flesh ; brought out the full 
glory and iDerfection of the higher law in all its motive and 
saving influence, to the apprehension of the depraved trans- 
gressors. This was the light that freed Adam and Eve from 
the law of sin and death, and saved them from the penal conse- 
quences of their transgression, introducing them to a life of 
faith in the promised seed of the woman. This was also the 
commandment that came to Paul when he w^as alive without 
the law. The command to look to this illustration of the infi- 
nite perfection of the law of God. It was the motive influence 
of the light of this law of God, reflected from the cross of 
Christ, which slew Paul and thus freed him from the law of 
sin and death ; and at the same time quickened him, from the 
death in trespasses and sins, to a new hfe of faith. And the 
design of this was, " That the righteousness of the law might 
be fullfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the 
Spiiit." Not that we might be made righteous or justified by 
having the righteousness of another transferred or imputed to 
us ; but that we might in due time, by a perfect renovation of 
moral character, exhibit in our own persons the righteousness 
which the law requires. 

There is not indeed the least allusion, in this whole descrip- 
tion of the Apostle's experience, to any want of ability in the 
subject, or to any increase of ability in eflecting the moral 
change, w^hich he experienced. But it all necessarily implies 
the perfect ability of the subject, to obey either the law of 
God or the law of sin, in view of the motives which they pre- 
sented, according to his own free choice. The habit of obey- 
ing the latter, had been previous to his conversion the generic, 
predominating choice of his will, and was no burden to him. 
But since conversion, it was like a body of death to him, even 
though by the motive influence of the former, he had been, in 
a good measure, freed from that bondage, and exulted in pros- 
pect of a perfect emancipation. 



THE LAW OF SIN. 155 



CHAPTER V. 

THE LAW OF SIN. — LOCATED IN THE FLESH. RELATION OF 

ADAM'S SIN TO THE CHAKACTER OF HIS POSTERITY. 

This brings us to another important flict in the analysis of 
the law of sin and death. The Apostle found this law located 
in his flesh. His physical members, or animal endowments, 
were the seat of the motive influences, which prevailed against 
the law of his mind. His animal instincts, appetites and pas- 
sions, were the mediums through which the motive influences 
of the law of sin operated, to control his voluntary actions 
against the generic desire of his regenerated will. " For I 
know that in me (that is in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing." 
— " I find then a law, that when I w^ould do good, evil is 
present with me." Again the perfect deliverance from this 
law of sin and death, for which he waited in confident hope, 
even while he groaned under the body of this death, w^as " the 
redemption of the body." When the body should be redeemed 
from the physical consequences of transgression, then the sal- 
vation of the believer would be perfected in the glorious mani- 
festation of the sons of God. It is worthy of special observa- 
tion, that in this whole description, the Apostle keeps up a 
perfect and exclusive contrast, between the flesh and the mind, 
the physical and intellectual endowments of the creature. This 
contrast runs exactly parallel with the contrast between sin 
and righteousness, and between the law of God and the law 
of sin and death. Thus showing, that all the motive influences 
which excite to sin, have their origin in, and act only through 
the flesh and the animal endowments. 

This parallel contrast suggests to us the true scriptural and 
evangelical theory, of the relation between Adam's sin and the 
moral character and condition of his posterity. Adam trans- 
gressed by eating the forbidden fruit. By that sin he incurred 
guilt, and became morally depraved, and liable to the pen- 
alty of the higher law. By the same act of transgression, he 
became physically depraved. His animal or physical constitu- 



156 RELATION OF ADAM'S SIN 

tion was disordered, diseased, vitiated, and became subject 
to pain, sickness, and death. But this physical depravity, or 
vitiosity of his animal constitution, was no part of the sin or 
guilt of that transgression. Eve was not to blame, or guilty, 
for the physical pain and shame she suffered. This was a mere 
physical consequence of the tiausgression committed. It lay 
entirely without the moral sphere, and belonged exclusively 
to the physical system of things. It was a mere animal affec- 
tion ; a disorganization of animal substance. It consisted wholly 
in locomotion. The very nature of the thing necessarily ex- 
cludes all moral quality or character from this kind of depravity. 
But this is the only depravity which Adam, by natural genera- 
tion, transmitted to his posterity ; and which has been trans- 
mitted from one generation to another ever since. And this 
is the only consequence of his eating the forbidden fi'uit, which 
is in its nature transmissible by any power, influence, or 
agency in the universe. All moral character adheres in per- 
sonal identity, and is therefore incapable of transmission in any 
way, shape or manner. The posterity of Adam can therefore 
derive no moral pravity, guilt, or penal infliction, from his 
sin, or the sin of any antecedent, but must remain perfectly 
innocent, till by personal transgression of the law of God, 
they contract guilt. 

Physical pains and the dissolution of the body were involved 
in the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit, not because 
they constituted an essential part of the penal sanction of the 
law of God, but because the accountable subjects were then 
existing and acting in a physical organization ; and the exe- 
cution of the penalty of everlasting destruction from the pres- 
ence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, must ne- 
cessarily destroy such a delicate organization. But there was 
no penalty executed at that time, either on Adam or any of 
his j)Osterity. Nor has there been since, nor ever will be, or 
can be, for that particular transgression. For the Divine 
Mediator interposed and stopped the execution as soon as it 
began, before the limited time expired. He exhibited to the 
guilty culprits, the gracious provision of the law of the Lord, 
for the redemption of fallen men, through a propitiatory sac- 



TO THE CHAEACTER OF HIS POSTEEITY. 157 

rifice of a mediator. This melted the hearts of the human 
offenders. They repented, believed and hoped. They were 
pardoned. They were graciously received, taken into the 
favor and protection of the Mediator. They were justified, 
not in the legal or judicial sense, but in the evangelical or 
metaphorical sense. All the guilt and liability to punishment 
incurred in that transaction, up to the moment of their repent- 
ance, was absolved, wiped away and forever annihilated. The 
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus also, beaming in their 
souls through the promise that the seed of the woman should 
bruise the serpent's head, freed them from the law of sin and 
death, as it did Paul, though it still adhered in their flesh, as 
it did in his. And that very night, before the meeting was 
adjourned, they were constituted a church of redeemed sin- 
ners, and received a sacrament exhibited in typical symbols, 
which has distinguished the true church from that day to the 
present ; but which since the incarnation is exhibited in repre- 
sentative symbols, instead of typical. The sacraments of the 
church have always been the same in design, meaning, and 
moral instruction, viz., plain, simple and significant symbols of 
the great mysteiy of Godliness, God manifested in the flesh, 
giving himself a ransom for all. (Not a hidden mystery that 
cannot be understood even by those to whom it is revealed, 
but a revealed mystery, explained and illustrated for the pur- 
pose of being understood and believed.) 

Thus the guilty and depraved transgressors were saved 
morally from the guilt and penal desert of that sin. But their 
bodies, their animal organization was still vitiated and dis- 
eased, and subject to the law of sin and death. This moral 
renovation of character, or freedom from guilt and spiritual 
bondage of their will, was effected, as in the case of Paul, by 
the motive influence of truth, exhibited in the law of the Spirit 
of life in Christ Jesus. When the commandment came he died 
unto sin, and in the same spiritual, or moral process, he was 
quickened unto righteousness, so that henceforth he, with his 
mind, served the law of God. But the law of sin still re- 
mained in his flesh. Physical depravity is not removed by 
motive influence of the light of truth. No act of grace or 



158 THE NECESSITY OF DISTINGUISHING 

absolution could heal the diseases of the flesh, or destroy the 
influence of animal instincts, passions and appetites, nor of 
vicious habits long indulged. The flesh is a physical substance ; 
therefore none but physical influence could produce the change 
necessary to free the flesh from the physical consequences of 
transgression. This freedom, we are assured, shall be effected 
in the resurrection, " When the dead shall be raised incorrupt- 
ible and we shall be changed. For this corruption must put 
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality," 
1 Cor. XV. 52, 53. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE NECESSITY OF DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE MORAL AND 
PHYSICAL SPHERES. 

We here come to the necessity of the distinction between 
the moi-al and physical spheres ; between the material and 
spiritual organizations which combine to constitute the living 
man, the accountable subject of moral government, in this 
present state of probation under grace. Man is constituted of 
a soul and a body; a spiritual, immaterial, invisible and intan- 
gible substance, or organization, endowed with intellectual and 
moral susceptibilities, or faculties. This rational soul is at pre- 
sent intimately united with a material organization, or physical 
substance, endowed with animal life and organs of nervous 
sensation. The method of action and the influences by which 
changes are effected in each of these substances, are entirely 
diverse from those of the other. And all persons, who have 
anything to do with human society, (except perhaps a few very 
learned and superlatively orthodox theologians,) constantly 
acknowledge and practically apply this distinction. Even the 
most illiterate and children understand and use this distinc- 
tion, before they understand the commonest words, by which 
it is expressed. In attempting to effect or describe any change 



BETWEEN THE MORAL AND rilYSICAL SPHERES. 159 

in either sphere, they seldom mistake the proper influences to 
be used, or ascribe results to antecedents belonging to a totally 
difterent sphere. If a person of common sense wishes his 
neighbor to change his moral conduct, he does not use a phy- 
sical machine of twenty horse-power ; but he presents to his 
understanding some of the important truths of the higher law, 
which are calculated to move his moral susceptibilities. Or if 
his neighbor is suffering and ready to perish under some pon- 
derous body, that has fallen upon him, he would not stand still 
and begin to describe, for his relief, the unspeakable love of 
God in giving his only begotten Son, or the glories of the 
cross of Calvary, and its power to ease a guilty conscience. 
If we should see such an exhibition of folly and stupidity, we 
should be very likely to knock the fool out of the way, and 
seize hold of the weio'ht that was crushino; the man, with all 
the physical force we could muster. 

Indeed, the reality and practical necessity of the distinction 
between spiritual and material substances, and between moral 
and physical influences, are among those intuitive truths, 
which we cannot avoid knowing and believing, just as soon as 
we have any distinct perception of the subjects of this dis- 
tinction. If, therefore, when speaking of the character, con- 
dition, and changes of human agents, in the present state, this 
distinction is confounded, forgotten or disregarded, we shall, 
of course, be involved in solecism, absurdity and contradiction. 
And this is undoubtedly the source and true cause of the pro- 
found and awful mysticisms, which involve the whole subject of 
the fall and recovery of man, in incomprehensible absurdity. 
Physical consequents have been ascribed to moral antecedents, 
and moral changes to physical forces. Mere animal phenomena 
have been described as moral qualities, and simple moral 
changes are declared to be the substantial productions of phy- 
sical influence. Man is represented as annihilating, by a sin- 
gle act of disobedience, all his own power, or ability to do 
right, and at the same time retaining all his responsibility for 
doing wrong. And God is described as emj)loying a tremendous 
physical force, far above and beyond his natural omnipotence, to 
effect a mere moral change, in a finite, feeble, dependent sub- 



160 THE NECESSITY OF DISTINGUISHING 

ject. But when the natural and essential differences of things 
are ignored or confounded, we may expect no end to absurdi- 
ties and mysticisms. 

Adam, the progenitor of our race, introduced sin into 
the world. " Wherefore as by one man sin entered into tbo 
world." We have a very concise, but very complete and 
perfect account of this event in the third chapter of Genesis. 

Every circumstance which might be necessary for the per- 
fect understanding of the nature, causes, and consequences of 
that event are plainly stated, in the fewest, but most perspicu- 
ous terms. It was a transgression of the law of God. It was 
an act of voluntary disobedience to a positive command. 
" Thou shalt not eat of it." The sin of this act consisted 
exclusively, in the relation which it sustained to that positive 
prohibition. "Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I com- 
manded thee that thou shouldest not eat ?" If that prohibition 
had not existed at that time, or if the agents had not heard of 
it, or known of it, no sin would have been committed by them in 
that act. Or, if their action had borne any other relation to 
the command, than that of transgression, the agents must 
have remained perfectly innocent, and sin could not have enter- 
ed into the world by that event. It was a free, voluntary act, 
without constraint, compulsion, or necessity. If it had been 
otherwise, the authors would have justified themselves from 
all sin or guilt in the case. Adam and Eve were the sole 
authors of all the sin of eating the forbidden fruit. Their vol- 
untary choice, that is, they themselves, were the sole cause, the 
efficient cause, and the only cause of the existence of that par- 
ticular sin. This circumstance of the event is very clearly 
stated in the history, and fully illustrated by the conduct of 
the agents, and confirmed by the sentence of the judge. The 
offenders both tried to assign some other cause, to impute the 
sin to some other antecedent, or to throw back the causality of 
the evil from themselves to something that preceded their own 
voluntary action. Eve said, " The serpent beguiled me and I 
did eat." And Adam said, " The woman, whom thou gavest to 
be with me, she gave of the tree, and I did eat." These were 
facts in the case ; the Judge did not controvert them : the 



BETWEEN" THE :M0RAL A:NT> PHYSICAL SPHERES. IGl 

serpent had beguiled the woman by false pretenses; the 
woman had enticed the man by her example, and blandish- 
ments. But the Judge still regarded each party as the author, 
the cause, and responsible agent of his own sin in the transac- 
tion, and pronounced judgment accordingly. And we may 
safely concur, with the unerring judgment of God, that the 
sin of voluntary action does not lie in any antecedent motive 
influence. It is not derived from antecedent influences tend- 
ing to excite, or to persuade, or entice to a particular course, 
or kind of action ; but is always created or caused to exist, by 
the volition or choice of the agent, who transgresses any obliga- 
tion of the higher law. 

Another circumstance attending the introduction of sin into 
the world was, that without antecedent motive influence, the 
event could never have taken place : sin could have never ex- 
isted in the human family. Because antecedent motive influ- 
ence is an essential condition of all moral action, both good 
and bad. Action without antecedent motive mfluence is 
nothing else, and nothing difierent from physical change, or 
animal phenomena. To give it moral character it must trans- 
pire in the sphere of intelligence and moral judgment. The 
agent must have some reason, grounds or inducements, either 
true or false, for acting thus, in order to make him responsable 
and give moral complexion to his conduct. Sin is transgres- 
sion of law. It must therefore be committed under motive influ- 
ence of law. Otherwise it can not come into existence at all. 
But the moral character or relations of any motive that may 
precede the voluntary action in any particular case, does not 
determine or necessitate the moral character of that action. 
The moral character of every action is determined by the vo- 
lition, of the agent ; and it may be in direct opposition to the 
most powerful motive influences ever presented to a human 
intelligence. In order to invest voluntary action with moral 
character at all, the author of it must see and understand, and 
feel in his conscience, the motive influences that preceded 
it : and must freely choose which motive influence he will 
jTield to, concur with, or obey. 

And he may, and is always perfectly able and at liberty to 



162 THE NECESSITY OP DISTINGUISHING 

obey the most trifling, insignificant, and feeble motive influ- 
ences, that can be suggested in the case. 

This fact every intelligent agent, who has acted under the 
motive influence of the Law of God, knows intuitively by his 
own experience. And the entire history of human agents, by 
which the higher law is illustrated in the Bible, confirms the 
fact as an essential and unchangeable principle of all morality, 
obligation, freedom and accountability. The first sin of our 
progenitors exhibits a perfect illustration and confirmation ot 
this truth. Previous to their first sin, the accumulation of 
motive influence to right moral action, was as great as it was 
possible for them to conceive, or for infinite wisdom, power and 
goodness to impose upon their moral susceptibilities. The 
motive influence of the law of God, addressed to them by the 
supreme Sovereign in person, confirmed by their entire past 
experience of its eternal truth, its infinite perfection and good- 
ness, and of the perfect utility of obedience ; their entire 
nature, their whole existence, all their intellectual intuitions, 
and moral consciousness, all their acquired knowledge and 
exjDcrience, all their sensations and emotions, were an accumu- 
lation of motive influence to right action. The authority of 
God expressed in the higher law, is always paramount motive 
influence to right action. No conceivable influence to the 
contrary can bear any other comparison with it, than that of 
finite to infinite. In the case of Adam this paramount influ- 
ence of the higher law was present with him, before his eyes, 
in his mind, pervading his whole being and his entire history. 
In opposition to this, the only influence to transgress was the 
falsehood of the serpent. And yet in view of this inferior 
motive influences Adam chose to transgress. He chose freely, 
understandingly, with knowledge, and free of all constraint. 
The serpent did indeed beguile the woman, and the woman 
enticed the man. There were present motive influences 
both to good and evil, to obey and transgress. But the 
motive influences to right action, were at the time infinitely 
more numerous, more important, more powerful and constrain- 
ing than the motives to wrong action. And Adam knew this, 
and yet chose to follow the lesser motives to transgression. 



BETWEEN THE MORAL AXD PHYSICAL SPHERES. 1G3 

It is therefore perfectly obvious, that neither the moral quality 
nor the strength of antecedent motives, ever determines, or 
necessitates the moral quality of the subsequent voluntary 
action of any free or accountable agent. But every agent by 
his own volition creates the moral quality of every action that 
he puts forth, and thus creates and determines his own moral 
character and destiny. 



CHAPTEK VII. 



THE differe:n'ce between the moral and physical. 

THE CONSEQUENCES OF CONFOUNDING THEM. 

We are now prepared to describe the difference in the man- 
ner of change in the moral and physical spheres, and the differ- 
ent influences, by which change is produced in each. The 
primary distinction between the moral and physical is, an 
intuitive truth ; it therefore neither needs, nor is capable of 
illustration. Every intelligent being perceives the distinction, 
as soon as he is conscious of his own intellectual existence, and 
no words can illustrate or add to the perception. The moral 
sphere includes all spiritual being, and its accidents. The 
physical includes all matter and its accidents. But the method 
and influences by which change is produced in each of these 
systems, are totally dissimilar and diverse from those of the 
other. In the moral sphere, every change of moral character or 
condition, involves the idea of agency, of choice, of personality, 
of accountability, and of desert or destiny. We can not form 
a rational conception of a moral change of character or condi- 
tion, without personality and the cor elation of personal agen- 
cies, both of a moral governor and the subject of government. 
There must also be an actual issue resultant ; and that issue 
must lie just where character is formed, and where destiny is 
incurred and endured. 

Every change in the moral sphere presupposes motive influ- 



164 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 

ences in antecedence ; that is, it presupposes influences that 
are perceived or felt only by intellectual and moral susceptibili- 
ties; influences that may be contemplated or judged of only 
by a rational mind, and which can only be weighed and assorted 
by the moral sense. But after contemplating these motive 
influences ever so long, and feeling ever so deeply in view of 
them, we can have no distinct perception of moral change, till 
we include the idea of an intelligent moral agent personally 
choosing and acting. And when we have thus attained a full 
perception of a moral change of character, we necessarily and 
invariably feel that there is a destiny or desert, or some future 
consequence, which we can not separate from it. We can not 
separate it, because it is a constituent of the nature of moral 
change to be followed by destiny, according to the nature of 
the change whether good or bad. 

Such are some of the antecedents and conditions of moral 
change. But when we look into the physical sphere, we per- 
ceive nothing of the kind, nothing in any degree resembling 
these conditions of moral changes. All physical change on 
the very first analysis, resolves itself into locomotion. If you 
attempt to seek the true cause of any particular change, or any 
class or description of changes in the physical universe, you 
can find nothing but locomotion. If you look into the sublime 
science of Astronomy, and contemplate the vast masses of 
matter that compose the physical universe ; not a single change 
of phenomenon, but is resolvable into locomotion, or change of 
relative position in space. Examine all the phyiscal forces 
ever discovered or conceived of by man, and all the stupendous 
efiects produced by them, both in nature and by art, and still 
you find nothing but locomotion. Or, investigate the innumer- 
able and wonderful chemical changes that are constanly going 
on in earth, air, and water, in the animal, vegetable, and min- 
eral kingdoms, yet nothing is discovered but locomotion, or 
change of relative position in space of the minute constituent 
particles composing the matter thus changed. Thus you may 
go through the mateiial universe and not find a single antece- 
dent, circumstance or condition of moral ciiange of character. 
You may indeed talk aboat thp agency of physical causes, but 



DIPFEREXCE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND niYSICAL. 165 

that agency is still nothing but locomotion. If you trace back 
a succession of physical sequences in quest of intelligent agency, 
you find nothing but locomotion, till you arrive at the infinite 
first cause. But when arrived at that intelligent first cause, you 
are entirely out of the physical sphere, out of the material uni- 
verse. God is a Spirit : His agency in bringing material sub- 
stance into being, lies entirely without the physical sphere, and 
within the moral, the spiritual. The change produced by His 
creative agency was not a mere physical change, but a divine 
production. The antecedent in that sequence was in the moral 
or spiritual sphere, the consequence was the existence of physi- 
cal substance. And the very first change after the creative 
fiat, had for its immediate antecedent locomotion. " In the 
beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the 
earth was without form and void ; and darkness was upon the 
face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face 
of the waters." And the immediate efiect was locomotion in 
the constituent atoms of matter, taking new relative positions 
in space thus coming into form and taking the distinctive 
natures of the different substances, as light, air, water, earth, 
etc. Though the divine agency is not of the physical sphere 
in any sense whatever, it originated matter, and the laws, by 
which changes in the material system take place ; and can 
doubtless, by a wise discretionary providence, accelerate, retard, 
and govern, their action at his own pleasure. But we find no 
such thing as intelligent agency in all the physical universe, 
and nothing that resembles or bears the least afiinity to vol- 
untary action, or accountability, or to moral character either 
good or bad. And among all the causes and conditions of 
physical change there is nothing resembling motive influence 
in the moral sense. On the other hand, in all the changes 
of moral character in the universe, there is nothing resembling 
locomotion. All intelligent voluntary agents, including all 
sensitive animal organization, can, each in his own proper 
sphere, originate or produce locomotion. But none but moral 
agents, who can weigh motive influences, in that perfect scale 
of moral rectitude, called the law of the Lord, can originate or 
change moral character, and no power or influence in the uni- 



166 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 

verse, can originate or change moral character, but the subject 
of the change Inmself. Because his moral character exists 
only in his personal identity, and consists of the relations 
which his personal voluntary action bears to the law of God. 

When therefore theologians forget this distinction, and 
apply the same principles, in describing and explaining moral 
changes which govern physical changes, they necessarily fall 
into gross errors, profound mysticisms and positive contradic- 
tions. It is a universal truth in physical science, that the ante- 
cedent and consequent are always of the same nature, and that 
the consequent derives its nature and character from that of 
the antecedent. Because all physical changes consist of locomo- 
tion, and their immediate and invariable antecedents or causes 
consist also of locomotion. But this universal axiom in the 
physical system when carried into the moral or spiritual becomes 
a universal falsehood ; because there is no such thing as 
locomotion in the moral sphere ; and because moral quality 
has for its immediate antecedent or cause, the voluntary action 
of an intelligent agent, but takes its moral nature from the 
relation it sustains to the higher law. It is also true in the 
physical system, that to find efficient or responsible agency, 
you must trace back a series of changes to the infinite first cause. 
But turn to the moral system and this aphorism instantly 
becomes a positive falsehood ; for we find at the first step, as 
the immediate antecedent of every moral change, an efficient, 
an intelligent, and accountable agent. Now apply these 
principles to the inquiry after the cause of the universal sin- 
fulness of all men, who develop a moral character in this life ; 
according to these Platonic axioms, this cause must be as sin- 
ful as sin itself, that is, of the same moral nature as its conse- 
quent. The theologians in prosecuting this inquiry, find 
antecedent to the commission of any actual sin, a vitiated 
physical constitution, and vitiated, disordered and ungovern- 
able animal instincts, appetites, and passions. When the moral 
sense of the human agent is sufficiently developed, and the 
higher law is brought to bear on his conscience, they see the 
motive influences of these innocent infirmities of the animal 
organization prevailing over the influences of law, and enticing 



DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 167 

the agent to commit sin, and thus put himself under bondage 
to the law of sin and death. Here they suppose they have 
found the doctrine of original sin, the corruption of his whole 
nature, which is commonly called original sin ; and from which, 
all actual trangressions proceed. This they say, is inflicted on 
all his posterity, the first moment of their existence, as the 
punishment of Adam's sin in his first transgression. And the 
metaphysical acumen of theologians for ages, has been employed 
and exhausted, inventing, improving, demolishing and defend- 
ing theories of human depravity and mystical dogmas based on 
these premises. But the axioms on which all these inventions 
and improvements rest, when carried into the moral sphere, 
are not merely not true, but absolutely false. And therefore 
all the theories and dogmas built upon them are necessarily 
false and deluding. They all involve contradictions, absurdities 
and mysticism. They put the consequent before the antecedent. 
They make men sinners before they commit sin. And thus 
the whole subject of the moral character, condition and relations 
of man, his fall and recovery is involved in obscurity and con- 
tradiction. This is not my assertion merely, but the most 
learned and orthodox teachers of theology and biblical criti- 
cism, and the most strenuous advocates of original sin, declare 
that the dogmas which they themselves teach on this subject, 
are profound and awful mysteries ; that they can not be 
explained by any c.ommon sense principles of moral govern- 
ment ; that they are totally inexplicable and beyond the sphere 
of human reason to understand or explain. 

And yet they teach that these dogmas must be believed, as 
fundamental doctrines of Christianity, on pain of excommuni- 
cation from the kingdom of God. 

But in my humble opinion, the whole subject of man's fall 
and recovery is plainly revealed in the Bible, and every change 
of moral character involved in either, is described in plain 
common sense language, easily understood by every person of 
common sense and common education. And the methods, the 
antecedents, and the consequents of every change involved 
are described as plainly as it is possible to describe in human 
language any physical change. And all the inexplicable mys- 



1G8 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 

teries connected with the subject are mere fictions, invented 
by the corrupt imaginations of sinful men. The only difficulty 
in understanding the whole process, beyond what is encoun- 
tered in the plainest domestic concern, consists in the habit of 
hating and evading the light of truth, which is always the 
natural consequence of actual transgression. And I believe 
that there is no inability or difficulty in relation to the subject, 
in any human agent of common sense, but the influence of 
habit, or the law of sin and death. 

Let us then return to the consideration of that law, and 
observe how it operated in the case of Adam and Eve. They 
were subjects of moral government, intellectual and moral 
beings, and at the same time physical animals. They subsisted 
and acted in two distinct natures, or in a complex nature, 
including both the spiritual and the physical. The event of 
their sinning or their fall, therefore, necessarily involved both 
moral and physical change. Both moral and physical conse- 
quences resulted ; and the appropriate antecedents of each 
were present. And the peculiar method of sequence in both 
the moral and physical is described and illustrated in the 
history of that event. There were motive influences both to 
good and evil moral action presented to the agents. On the 
one hand the paramount motive influences of the higher law, 
in as great extent as it was possible for the agents to conceive, 
for they constituted their entire being, their knowledge, expe- 
rience and history. On the other hand the lies of their tempter 
were the motive influences to evil action. We may here ob- 
serve, that these two kinds of motive influences, include all 
the influence for the production of moral change in the uni- 
verse, external to the voluntary acting agent. The law of the 
Lord which is perfect, converting the soul, and which is iden- 
tical with the Gospel of Christ, contains the whole truth res- 
pecting every existing relation and every relation that may 
exist in God's moral kingdom, marking distinctly the line 
between right and wrong, and imiDosing all obligation to do 
right and avoid the wrong. Hence this system of truth con- 
tains all the influence, which the infinite God can put forth to 
induce a finite agent to do right, or to produce any change for 



DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND rilYSICAL. 1G9 

the better in his moral character. As God is infinitely good, 
it is impossible for him to have any motive to evil, or to put 
forth any motive influence to moral evil. Falsehood, the oppo- 
site to truth, is the only motive influence left in the universe, that 
can have any tendency to produce transgression or sin. 

In the case of our progenitors both kinds of motive influence 
were present. But neither the one nor the other, nor both 
together, determined, necessitated or caused the moral charac- 
ter of their action in the case. These various motive influ- 
ences must have been considered, weighed and compared by 
an intelligent moral agent, and an act of choice or volition 
must haA^e been put forth by such agent, deciding which kind 
of motive influence the agent would obey, before either right 
or wrong, holiness or sin, or any moral quality or character 
could result in the case. But the immediate consequent of 
such voluntary action under motive influence of the law, was 
in the case of Adam and Eve a moral change. They concurred 
with the motive influences to transgression and became sinners. 
Their own voluntary action in such circumstances, was the 
sole cause, the efiicient cause, and only responsible cause of 
their sin. The immediate consequence of their transgression 
was consciousness of guilt. This was followed by a host of 
the most painful, terrific and horrid emotions they were 
capable of conceiving. Fear, shame, self-condemnation, self- 
abhorrence, hatred of the light, and anticipation of future 
penal consequences. All this process and change of character 
and condition was in the spiritual or moral sphere. All the 
antecedents and consequents thus far were moral sequences. 
No physical or material influence, force or causality, is to be 
found in the whole process. 

But Adam and Eve were material animals, as well as moral 
agents. They had a physical, as Avell as a moral constitution. 
Their physical constitution Avas brought into action in eflfect- 
ing this moral change ; and physical consequences resulted. 
While the moral and physical are combined in the same per- 
sonal agent, their antecedents and conditions must mutually 
effect fc::ch other; and may either retard or accelerate, or 
wholly prevent the development and action of the other. 

8 



170 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 

Hence this first change of our progenitors to moral evil, pro- 
duced a corresponding change in their animal organization to 
physical evil. This change, like all physical change, consisted 
in locomotion and in nothing else. The healthful locomotion 
of the animal functions was interrupted, disordered and became 
painful and sickly, tending rapidly to dissolution. But it in- 
cluded nothing that bore the least resemblance to moral change 
or to moral character, good or bad. It exhibited not a single 
trait or circumstance that characterizes moral change, or that 
is necessary to constitute moral character. Who ever thought 
that Eve committed sin, in blushing at her own nakedness 
when discovered, or in shivering and feeling uncomfortable in 
the cold raw atmosphere, or instinctivly seeking the fig-leaves 
to cover herself? Whatever you may think, God did not think 
there was any sin in these physical consequences, for He kindly 
encouraged her by furnishing skins and making garments 
to clothe them. Or who ever supposed that there was any 
sin in sufiering by the tooth-ache, a broken limb, or a fever ? 
The thought is preposterous. 

But this physical change reacted very powerfully on the 
intelligents, who were the accountable authors of the moral 
change. The pain, the physical suffering, the anticipation 
of speedy dissolution of the body, presented a very numer- 
ous and powerful array of motive influences exciting to renewed 
action to escape these pains and fears. The natural tendency 
of these motive influences, if viewed in the light of truth, 
would have been to lead to repentance and immediate return 
to obedience. But by the very first section of the law of sin 
and death, this array of motive influence to recuperative action 
was converted into falsehood ; that is, into motive influences, 
leading the sufferers into other and still more aggravated 
acts of transgression. Viewed in the light of truth, the physi- 
cal consequences of sin, would in all cases only excite to repent- 
ance and perfect reformation. But the evil doers had put 
themselves under the law of sin and death, by the first trans- 
gression. " For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, 
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." 
They therefore looked at the physical consequences of their 



DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 1*71 

sin, not through the perfect mirror of truth, but through the 
vitiated medium of their animal instincts, appetites and passions. 
And through this false medium their sufferings seemed to them 
to be the consequence of the perfect law of God, instead of 
the consequence of their own voluntary traTisgression, They 
therefore hated the light and refused to contemplate their own 
character, condition and interests by this perfect standard of 
rectitude and beneficence. Thus the habit was contracted, 
the law of sin confirmed, the habit of hating the light of truth, 
of hating God and his law, the habit of contemning all divine 
authority, and hating all righteousness. And the moral deprav- 
ity of every descendant of Adam, who becomes a sinner in this 
world, begins, and is contracted in the same manner, proceeds 
by the same process, under the same law of sin and death, or in 
the same invariable method. And every successive volition, 
action or emotion in that direction adds strength and mo- 
mentum to the habit, and multiplies motive influences to sinful 
action. And every new relation, into which any agent intro- 
duces this course of conduct, originates a new series of moral 
sequences for evil action, and thus doubles the rapidity by 
which moral depravity is accumulated, and the motive influen- 
ces to evil action multiplied. 

In the history of the fall, we are distinctly informed that 
such was the morbific character of the physical change pro- 
duced by eating the forbidden fruit, and such the rapidity of 
the process of both the moral and physical depravation, that 
death, but for the interposition of grace, would have been the 
necessary and inevitable consequence in the short space of a 
single day. " For in the day thou eat est thereof, thou shalt 
surely die." The beautiful animal organization, so fearfully 
and wonderfully made, and so perfectly adapted for all phys- 
ical utility and enjoyment, reduced to common dust again in 
a single day, presents a most terrific picture of the malignant 
consequences of a single transgression. And the intellectual 
organization, the immortal soul, with all its divine and exalted 
moral endowments, consigned to everlasting destruction from 
the presence of God, and from the glory of his power, by one 
act of rebellion, and thus a whole innumerable race of immor- 



172 DIFFEREXCE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 

tal intelligents totally extinguished in their first progenitors, 
gives a thousand times more clear, adequate, and consistent 
illustration of the final consequences of sin, than all the theo- 
ries of original sin, imputed guilt, and transfered moral charac- 
ter ever invented. Adam and Eve were, on the very day 
they eat thereof, immediately struck with death, or, began 
actually to die. To die, morally or spiritually, by suffering 
the penal sanctions of the higher law in the torments of their 
guilty consciences ; and physical death, in the nervous shock 
and animal pains of their bodies. But, physical death is the 
only death that may be suffered in a single day, and was 
therefore the only death that could have been meant, or that 
Adam could have understood as being meant, in the phrase, 
" In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." 

But no death was consummated on that day. The moment 
death threw his dart, grace interposed ; and the whole process 
of moral depravation and physical dissolution was arrested. A 
new administration of moral government, adapted to the pres- 
ent condition of the subjects, was introduced. The whole 
human race was rescued ; and saved from all penal conse- 
quences of Adam's fall. And the condition of all human 
agents who should ever live to form' a moral character in the 
flesh, was changed to a probation under grace, administered 
by a divine Mediator, even by God himself, manifested in the 
flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ. The guilty agents in that 
catastrophe were indeed arrested, were convicted by the light 
of truth, and were melted to repentance by the revelations of 
grace. They believed the revelation ; and in heart and pur- 
pose, returned to their allegiance. They were justified freely 
by grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 
They were, by the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, 
made free fj*om the law of sin and death. All the sin of the 
human agents in that transaction was pardoned. All the 
guilt they had incurred on that day was absolved. All 
liability to penal suffering by any sensitive being for that sin 
was totally and forever extinguished. The subsequent sen- 
tence of sorrow, labor, and pain pronounced on the culprits, 
was merely a declaration of the physical consequences of their 



DIFFEEEN^CE BETWEEN THE MOR^^X AND PHYSIC AL. 173 

sin, which infinite wisdom, power, and goodness could not 
wholly remove during their j^robation in the flesh. But tliis 
sentence could bear no penal relation to past sins and guilt, 
which were all pardoned, absolved, and removed, with tlieir 
threatened penalty, and the subjects introduced into a totally 
new and difierent dispensation of moral government, adminis- 
tered on totally difterent principles and conditions. When, 
by their subsequent transgression, these physical pains were 
multiplied, the increased suffering might seem to bear some 
kind of penal relation to such offences, under the new dispen- 
sation. But they are more truly and properly regarded, and 
generally described in the Bible, as paternal chastisements, or 
disciplinary exercises, rather than penal inflictions. Penal in- 
flictions belong truly and appropriately, only in a state of 
retribution. In a state of probation, they are entirely out of 
their proper position ; and can be called penal, only in a very 
limited and metaphorical sense, especially in a probation under 
grace. Hence the Saviour, and his apostles, whenever they 
speak of the penal sanctions of the higher law, or of the penal 
inflictions of God's moral government over men in this world, 
always locate them in the future state of retribution, after the 
final Judgment, at the last day. When the Saviour had 
described the final Judgment at his second coming, he added, 
" And these shall go away into everlasting punishment : but 
the righteous into life eternal." Matt. xxv. 46. And Paul, 
describing the same future Judgment of God, says : " Who 
will render to every man according to his deeds : — ^In the day 
when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, ac- 
cording to my gospel." Rom. ii. 6-16. And in 2 Thess., he 
tells us that the recompense of the wicked for their persecu- 
tions of believers, the punishment of all their disobedience to 
the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall take place : "When 
he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired 
in all them that believe in that day." Thus, all, of both re- 
wards and punishments of the present administration, are 
placed in the future state of retribution. Indeed, the admin- 
istration of grace, and the infliction of penal suffering, are as 
perfect antagonisms as it is possible to conceive. They must 

3 



174 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 

therefore as necessarily exclude each other, as do light and 
darkness. Hence, the inspired writers never confound them 
in respect to either time, place, or subject. 

The sentence pronounced, on the day that Adam ate the 
forbidden fruit, against the tempter, was a sentence to punish- 
ment under the previous administration of penal law, pro- 
nounced and inflicted under that administration. Immedi- 
ately after this sentence, the annunciation of the new ad- 
ministration of grace was made. "And I will put enmity 
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her 
seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." 
The woman shall not die on that day. The race shall not be 
extinguished in the first progenitors. She shall have a nu- 
merous seed, one of which shall utterly destroy the adversary, 
and save the race. This was all explained to Adam and Eve, 
to their full understanding and belief. The dispensation of 
grace then and there began. The whole race were then 
saved from the penal consequences of the fall. The sentence 
afterwards addressed to Eve and then to Adam, was pro- 
nounced and executed under the new administration of grace, 
on very different principles. There is no mention or allusion 
in it to anything but the physical consequences of their trans- 
gression. And because it was impossible for infinite wisdom, 
power, and goodness, wholly to remove the physical conse- 
quences of their sin at once, without defeating the glorious 
scheme of grace, and totally subverting the laws of all animal 
procreation and physical change throughout the universe ; or 
because infinite wisdom, for good and sufficient reasons, saw it 
best, they were left to suffer more or less physical discomfort 
during their probation, according to their subsequent conduct. 
Therefore the physical disease or viciosity of the flesh, conse- 
quent of their eating the forbidden fruit, was propagated by 
Adam and Eve to their immediate posterity ; and by each 
successive generation to their posterity, through the whole 
race to the present time. And this physical disease is still in- 
creased and aggravated, or else mitigated by the sins or 
reformation of every successive generation. And every one 
knows, who knows anything of animal physiology, that it is a 



DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 175 

universal and unchangeable law of animal procreation, that 
immediate progenitors transmit to their posterity more or less 
of the physical condition of their animal constitution at the 
time of generation. 

But our present inquiry relates only to the influence of this 
physical depravity on the moral character of Adam's pos- 
terity. There is no dispute or doubt but that the physical 
depravity, or the morbid, sickly, and degenerating condition 
of the animal constitution of the whole race is the natural con- 
sequence of their sin. " So death passed upon all men, for 
that all have sinned." Rom. v. 12. But how does this 
physical change, this disordered locomotion in the material 
organization affect or influence the moral character and con- 
dition of human agents ? 

It hath been ah'eady shown with sufficient clearness, I 
think, to satisfy all common sense readers and candid think- 
ers that all moral character, good and bad, and all moral 
quality, complexion, distinction, or difference among human 
agents, is found alone in the relation which their voluntary 
action sustains to the law of God : and that every individual 
human agent creates, originates, or causes by his own free 
volition or choice, exclusive of all other causality, his entire 
moral character, and all that pertains to it. It hath also been 
shown that physical change, and especially the diseased, 
vitiated and painful locomotion of the animal body may pro- 
duce a great variety of motive influences to excite the subject 
to further voluntary action ; and that the moral tendency of 
these motive influences depends entirely on the medium 
through which the intelligent agent contemplates them. If 
contemplated in the light of truth as it shines in the law of 
the Loi-d, their sole tendency must necessarily be to right 
moral action. But if contemplated in some false deceptive 
mirror, such as the serpent presented to Eve, or such as the 
law of sin and death furnishes to every evil doer, their moral 
tendency must be to sin. We may therefore infer, as an es- 
tabhshed and incontrovertible truth, that the physical conse- 
quences of Adam's sin, or of the sin of any other parent, can 
have no other influence on the moral character or condition 



176 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 

of his posterity, than that of antecedent motive influence. 
And we have before shown that antecedent motive influence 
never causes, determines, or necessitates the moral character 
of subsequent vohmtary action. Therefore the sin of Adam, 
and of all other antecedents is necessarily excluded from any 
causality in the first sin, or the commencement of a sinful 
character, or the contraction of moral depravity in any of 
their posterity. Because there is in that case no antecedently 
accumulated influence of habit, no law of sin and death to dis- 
guise the motive influences present. And because the motive 
influences of the higher law are necessarily present, whenever 
it is transgressed, and are always j^aramount, and felt to be 
paramount. The first transgression which commences the 
formation of a sinful character, or moral depravity, is always 
a free, voluntary action, a willful violation of knowTi and felt 
obligation. The immediate antecedent emotion of the mind 
may have been some precocious, violent, ungovernable animal 
passion, or some physically destructive habit of sensual indul- 
gence, contracted under the influence of physical depravity, 
and the surrounding examples, temptations, and vicious train- 
ing of a sinful world. But, having never before been con- 
templated in the light of the higher law, this antecedent, 
whatever it may have been, could have had no moral quality. 
Because as yet it could have sustained no possible relation to 
the law : the agent in the case having never before known 
that there was any law in the universe relating to that pas- 
sion, or forbidding that indulgence. 

But having in another and more extended work, considered 
the relation of Adam's sin to the moral character and con- 
dition of his posterity, and fully described the process of 
moral depravation under that relation, it is not necessary here 
to repeat that analysis. And, perhaps, enough has been said 
in this essay, to show the impropriety and danger of confound- 
ing the distinction between the moral and physical, the spirit- 
ual and material systems, or of reasoning from the laws and 
principles of the one, to prove facts and results in the other. 
The inevitable consequence of such a course must be error, 



DrFFERENOE BETWEEN THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 177 

solecism, contradiction, and absurdity. Because the substan- 
ces and their accidents, and the nature of all changes in each, 
are totally different from those of the other. In the moral 
sphere, all cause consists in intelligent moral volition, or a 
moral agent acting under the motive influence of the perfect 
law of the Lord. In the physical sphere, all cause consists in 
locomotion. In the moral sphere, motive influence is an es- 
sential circumstance antecedent to all causality, or to the 
action of cause in the production of changes ; because no in- 
telligent moral agent ever acts without motive. But in the 
physical sphere, motive influence in the moral sense is a sole- 
cism, an impossibility, for all physical force, influence, power, 
or causality is immediately resolvable into locomotion. In 
the moral sphere, all change, as far as we know, consists in 
change of moral character, by the voluntary action of the 
subject, and the consequent change of the condition of the 
subject. In the physical sphere, all change, on the very first 
analysis, is resolved into change of local position in relation to 
space. Things as diverse in every respect, as it is possible to 
conceive. But confound these different things together, and 
then undertake to inquire after the causes and consequents of 
change in either sphere, or after the truth and duties of differ- 
ent relations in either, and you are at once, and necessarily 
involved in mysticism, absurdity, and contradiction. On the 
one hand, the infinite and holy God is made the propounder 
and author of all the sin and misery in the universe; an 
almighty tyrant! consigning to penal suffering myriads of 
poor helpless innocents, created with sinful guilty natures, ut- 
terly incapable of anything but sinning and suffering. On the 
other hand are millions of free agents, accountable subjects of 
moral government, totally destitute of ability to do anything 
but transgress and suffer punishment. In another category 
we have moral character created by physical power, consist- 
ing of material substance, transferable, like bills of exchange, 
from one person to another : and an endless series of like in- 
comprehensible mysticisms. But when we look at the moral 
system, in the pure unmingled light of Divine truth, as it 



178 LIMITATION OF THE LAW OF SIX AND DEATH. 

shines in the higher law, and regard it as totally distinct from 
the material, we at once behold Christianity in all its divme 
beauty, harmony, and simplicity; and all these inexplicable 
mysticisms vanish into limbo, where they belong. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

LIMITATION OF THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH. 

But there is another section of the law of sin and death, yet 
to be considered. It is the last closing section, or statute of 
limitation, pronounced by the supreme Legislator, on the day 
that sin entered the human family. " Till thou return unto the 
ground ; for out of it wast thou taken : for dust thou art, and 
unto dust shalt thou return," Gen. iii. 19. As this law of sin 
and death has its location exclusively in the flesh, or in the 
members of the animal organization, and as its only medium 
of influence, through which it can affect the moral action of 
the subject, consists of the vitiated instincts, appetites, and 
passions of the animal nature ; as soon as the animal organiza- 
tion is dissolved, this law ceases to exist, by the limitation of 
its own nature. " Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." 
James, i. 15. Like all finite temporal incidents, when its mission 
is finished, it ceases to exist. When the body dissolves, the 
law in its members is necessarily extinct. The intellectual 
moral agent stands out then a pure spiritual being, in the clear 
unclouded light of eternal truth, as it shines in the higher law, 
the perfect law of the Lord. His probation is ended. His 
character is perfected. His account is made up for the final 
judgment. His retribution must now begin. The true believer 
of the Gospel of Christ, who has voluntarily renounced the 
law of sin, and chosen the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus, as the rule of his action, enters on the full fruition of 
that eternal life, which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. And the impenitent sinner, who has perfected his 



LIMITATIOX OF THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH. 179 

character, in voluntary subjection to the law of sin and death, 
goes away into everlasting punishment. The human agent, 
who has transgressed the higher law, during his probation 
under grace in the flesh, and died impenitent, immediately 
finds himself in the condition in which the divine Mediator 
found Adam and Eve, (their physical pains excepted). They 
were perfectly alive in the consciousness of their guilt, but 
stricken with death, through their entire being, soul and body ; 
hating the light, and striving in vain to escape or evade it ; 
but only exposing their own shame, deformity and increasing 
guilt ; constrained to abhor their own character, and detest 
themselves for contracting it, and thus to become their own 
tormenters. 

The higher law, which carries its penal sanction in its own 
absolute jDerfection, and executes the same by its own motive 
influence independent of all other power, influence, or causality, 
being nothing else but the eternal truth and light of the divine 
will or mind of the infinite God, who is light, and in him is no 
darkness at all, which therefore shines constantly and every- 
where, penetrating every susceptibility of the pure spiritual 
finite being, and compelling him to see and contemplate his 
own sinful character just as it is, and as it appears in the light 
of truth, perfectly odious. But the impenitent sinner, even 
after his whole probation has been wasted in sin, being still in 
his entire nature, that noble intellectual being, which God 
created and endowed with those rational and moral suscepti- 
bilities,which constitute the image and likeness of God, in which 
Adam was created, must necessarily regard his own vile char- 
acter, according to his finite capacity, with the same emotions, 
with which God regards it. He must detest, abhor, and despise 
such character, and hate himself for so foolishly contracting it, 
when the opposite character, was equally attainable by him. 
The law of sin and death having ceased to exist, he will have 
no power, ability, medium or means, of evading the light of 
the higher law, or of the presence of God, but must forever 
sink under its scathing, withering, and scorching motive influ- 
ence. While in the flesh, and acting in obedience to the law 
of sin and death, he could, perhaps, most of the time of his pro- 



180 SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 

bation, maoage as Paul did, to keep himself alive without the 
law, (that is, in his owm estimation, though actually dead in 
trespasses and sins). But the commandment came, sin revived 
and he died, not as Paul did, unto sin, but passed out of the 
flesh and out of probation, an impenitent in his sin. Immedi- 
ately after that he began to die that death Avhich is the w^ages 
of sin, the penalty of the higher law in the future state of retri- 
bution. A death which is never fully consummated, but the 
pangs of which are ever new and ever excruciating. Such is 
the final result of yielding obedience to the law of sin in the 
members. 

But the penitent believing sinner, who is persuaded by the 
light of truth, to change the generic volition of his will, or 
governing purposes of his life, from doing evil to doing right, 
from the law of sin to the law of God, is immediately, as 
Paul was, freed from the law of sin and death, by the law 
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Yet w^hile he continues 
in the flesh, he must continue the conflict with the sinful habits, 
23ropensities and inclinations, which he has contracted by actual 
transgression of the law of God. But as soon as death dis- 
solves the body, he is delivered from the bondage of corruption 
into the glorious liberty of the children of God; having 
attained to the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

CONCLUSION. — A SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 

The results of this discussion of the law of sin and death, may 
now be expressed in the following propositions. 

1st. Every created finite intelligent, is in his own limited 
sphere, a cause, a primary cause and an eflicient cause, as truly 
as God is cause in the infinite sphere. For every human agent 
is conscious of originating action, change and motion. And 
we constantly see all other intelligent creatures doing the same 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 181 

2nd. Every created agent, who is endowed with a moral 
sense, or with a capacity of distinguishing right and wrong in 
relation to the law of a Supreme Being, is a moral agent, an 
accountable agent, and a subject of God's moral government. 
For consciousness of obligation, and desert of retribution are 
invariable and inseparable consequents of the perception of 
right and wrong. 

3d. It is proper and essential to the nature of a moral 
agent, that he should create or contract his own moral charac- 
ter, and thus determine his own destiny. For without this 
the conception, or idea of a moral government is impossible. 

4th. No subject of moral government can be divested of 
adequate ability to perform his whole duty, or be placed in 
circumstances, in which he is unable to discharge every obli- 
gation that may be imposed on him. Because the moment an 
agent ceases to have ability to perform duty, he ceases to be 
a moral agent, or a subject of moral government at all. Abil- 
ity to perform is the only basis of obligation. Where ability 
is wanting, obligation can not attach. Accountability is impos- 
sible. 

5th. All moral character both good and bad, is created by 
the voluntary action of the subject of it, acting under the 
motive influence of the perfect law of the Lord. " For sin is 
the transgression of the law." And " He that doeth righteous- 
ness is righteous, even as he is righteous." But " Where no 
law is there is no transgression." 

6th. The emotions, passions, volitions and actions of human 
animals antecedent to their knowledge of law, and voluntary 
action under its motive influence, are mere physical locomo- 
tion, or mere animal phenomena ; and as destitute of moral 
quality, or moral character, as the actions of the birds of the 
air, or the beasts of the field. Because they sustain no direct 
relation to the higher law, in which all moral quality exclusively 
consists. 

Yth. The law of sin and death fully accounts for all the 
wickedness, depravity, crime, and misery of this apostate 
world, were they a thousand times greater than they are, 
without implicating the purpose, will, counsel, decree, or 

3* 



182 SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 

agency of God, in any way, shape, or manner whatever. 
Because a holy and righteous God can sustain but one single 
relation to sin, or moral evil, and that is the relation of infinite, 
unchangeable antagonism, or opposition. 

In view of these incontrovertible facts, we are compelled to 
abandon, renounce, and repudiate all the inexplicable dogmas 
relating to the moral character and condition of human 
animals, antecedent to their voluntary action under the motive 
influence of the law of God. As the romantic discoveries of 
Gulliver, or Sinbad the sailor, vanish in the light of true his- 
tory, so in the light of common sense and the word of God, 
the incomprehensible mysteries of the covenant made before 
the parties existed — of sinning by proxy thousands of years 
before the principal was born ; of the transfer of guilt and 
punishment through a thousand generations ; and of the 
righteous punishment of myriads of innocent subjects ; — all 
vanish into theological romance. And that other class of 
mysteries relating to innate moral depravity, the sinfulness of 
human nature, the total depravity of human agents as soon as 
they are born, and the total inability of sinners to perform 
any right moral action, and their tremendous obligation, at 
the same time, to repent, believe, be converted, obey the law 
of God, and fulfill all righteousness, all vanish in the hght of 
truth, shining in the word of God. And another category of 
mysticisms, though not particularly alluded to, we think must 
be repudiated in the light of this discussion. They are often 
exhibited in public religious teaching, and in books, under 
the phrases of the special influences of the Holy Ghost, the 
supernatural influences of the Spirit, supernatural conversion 
and supernatural renovation, and the supernatural power of 
God, and like superlative exj^letives. Without this super- 
omnipotence, the authors of these mysticisms say, that all 
moral change for the better, in human character, or human 
nature, is impossible ; and the whole system of Divine truth 
totally inefficient for any human improvement. But they all 
vanish in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
the face of Jesus Christ. As these fictitious mysteries contra- 
diet the plain and positive declarations of revealed truth, and 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 183 

all the intuitions of common sense, their only influence erer 
has been, and ever must be, to mystify and obscure the whole 
subject of man's fall and recovery. The sooner, therefore, 
the Christian system of doctrine is divested of all such fictions, 
the sooner it will exhibit its legitimate influence in meliorating 
human society, and saving sinners. When these theological 
fictions are set aside, Christianity becomes a plain, common 
sense, matter-of-fact business between God, and the subject 
of his moral government; perfectly understandable and prac- 
ticable by every human intellect which is sufficiently developed 
to contract a moral character, or appreciate or suffer moral 
retribution. 

Only those who transgress, and incur guilt, can suffer pun- 
ishment under the righteous government of the holy and just 
God. The progenitors of the human race, w^hen they trans- 
gressed, incurred guilt in their own persons. That guilt con- 
stituted the distinctive moral quality of their personal identity. 
It was not possible, therefore, under a righteous administra- 
tion of moral government, that any other person should ever 
suffer penal inflictions for their sin. When they transgressed, 
they did not incur guilt and punishment for the w^hole race ; 
but they did incur, as an essential part of their own personal 
punishment, the total extinction of the entire race, as a suc- 
cession of intellectual moral beings, sustaining relation to a 
common parentage. The great crowning privilege and bless- 
ing of their normal condition, was the privilege of replenishing 
the earth with a numerous posterity of immortal intelligents, 
all acknowledging them as progenitors and antecedents. But 
this glorious pri\alege they forfeited. Had no interposition 
of grace occurred, on the very day they ate the forbidden 
fruit, not a soul of Adam's posterity could ever have existed. 
The race had ended with the first progenitors. 

But grace did interpose. The God of infinite wisdom, 
power, and goodness, in the person of the divine Mediator, 
presented himself to the guilty progenitors, and revealed to 
them the gracious remedial provision of the higher law; and 
placed them on probation, under a dispensation of grace, pro- 
viding for their perfect absolution from guilt, and from all 



184 SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 

penal infliction, and their entire moral renovation. They ac- 
cepted and complied with the terms of salvation. The race 
was saved. The moral consequences and penal retributions, 
incurred by the sin of eating the forbidden fruit, were all re- 
moved, extinguished, and forever blotted out of existence. 
But they were still in the flesh, they had a physical, an animal 
organization ; and it was necessary that they should continue 
in the flesh during their probation of grace, in order to secure 
the peculiar benefits of the same. Therefore, the physical 
consequences of their sin were not fully removed during their 
probation. And the same are transmitted to their posterity, 
by natural generation ; that is, by a physical medium. 

In consequence of this physical viciosity of the whole race, 
myriads of Adam's posterity never live to develop manhood : 
never become moral agents in the flesh : are never account- 
able subjects of moral government in this world : and never 
begin any probation, or the formation of moral character in 
the body. They die in infancy. But, they are fully provided 
for in the dispensation of grace, through the redemption that 
is in Christ Jesus, and constitute a numerous and important 
part of the kingdom of Heaven, or the Church of the redeemed 
in glory. But this topic has been discussed elsewhere, and 
can not be introduced here, consistently. But every human 
being, who lives to develop a moral agent in the flesh, com- 
mences his probation, when he begins to act voluntarily, 
under the light and motive influence of the law of God. And 
by his own free voluntary action he creates his own moi*al 
character, and every thing that pertains to it. And always, 
during his probation, acts with perfect liberty and ability to 
change his character, and comply with the terms of salvation, 
according to his own choice or pleasure. And if ever a change 
of character does take place, always so acts. 

All that infinite wisdom, power, and goodness could do, to 
save the whole race, and every individual sinner of the human 
family, has been done, from the day Adam ate the forbidden 
fruit, to the present moment ; and will continue to be done, 
to the end of time. For the infinite God swears by his own 
life, " That he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 185 

but that the wicked turn from his way, and live." Ezek. 
xxxiii. 11. He is of one mind, unchangeable, and will do all 
his pleasure. Therefore, we may be assured that nothing 
which may be done by the infinite God, for the salvation of 
sinners, will ever be omitted. But the change of moral 
character in human agents, which constitutes their salvation, 
is not the immediate consequent of Divine agency. The 
Divine agency is not the proximate cause of such change, but 
the agency of the human subject. Hence, the ultimate appeal 
of God himself is to the sinner. "Turn ye, turn ye from your 
evil ways ; for why will ye die ?" Ezek. xxxiii. 11. And again, 
"Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye 
have transgressed ; and make you a new heart, and a new 
spirit: for why will ye die?" Ezek. xviii. 31. And hence, the 
apostle affirms : " Seeing ye have purified your souls, in obey- 
ing the truth, through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the 
brethren." 1 Pet. i. 22. The sinner alone can change his 
character and destiny, by ceasing to do evil, and learning to 
do well ; that is, by repenting, and forsaking his sins. The 
Almighty can no more change the character of a human 
agent, than the human agent can create a world. Because all 
moral character, and moral change are necessarily, and invari- 
ably the work of the subject. The change of regeneration, 
which is the work of the Holy Spirit exclusively, is always 
antecedent to the change of character, and consists in per- 
suading, or making willing the subject to change the generic 
volition, or governing purpose of his will, from transgression 
to obedience. This change is effected solely by the motive 
influence of truth, as shining in the gospel of Christ, the 
power of God unto salvation, or in that perfect law of the 
Lord, which converts the soul. But all motive influence may 
be evaded or resisted, under the influence of the law of sin 
and death. The sinner may wilfully persist, and die in his 
sins. "Why will ye die ?" 

Bat such is the infinite perfection of the higher law, that is. 
of the moral government of God, that every subject of that 
government, from the first moment that he becomes an ac- 
countable subject, has always before him, and within reach of 



186 SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 

his perception and conscience, paramount motive influence to 
right moral action. And such is the absohite perfection of the 
provisions of grace, and the administration of the same, that 
every sinner, under the gosjDcl, till the last moment of his 
probation, is always surrounded and pervaded with paramount 
motive influences to repent, and be converted. These motive 
influences are found in the light of eternal truth, shining in 
the higher law. And God himself is this light of truth ; and 
in him is no darkness at all. But God is everywhere, and 
always present with all his creatures, pervading their entire 
being, " For in him we live, and move, and have our being." 
Hence, nothing in the universe can hinder, prevent, or 
postpone a single hour, the conversion of the sinner, who has 
once heard the gospel, but his owm voluntary action in hating 
and evading the light of truth. Of this, the sinner may be 
wholly unconscious, as Paul was, w^hen he thought himself 
alive without the law once, though actually dead in trespasses 
and sins. This condition of insensibility the sinner acquires 
and maintains, by occupying his whole time, his whole mind 
or thoughts, his entire ability, in the pursuits, pleasures, and 
indulgences of the material system, and the animal nature. 
He constantly hastens from one selfish pursuit to another, or 
from one sensual indulgence to another, without seriously 
considering his relations, his obligations or duty to God, or 
his interests in the retributions of God's moral government. 
But let God, in his providence, by a monetary collapse, a 
commercial failure, a pestilence, a famine, an earthquake, or 
any other means, separate between the sinner and the objects 
of his sensual pursuits and indulgences, so as to let in the light 
of truth upon his moral vision, or let the sinner himself be- 
come satiated to loathing w^ith sensual indulgence, as some- 
times happens, and turn to the light of truth for a new variety 
of diversion, and we presently hear the earnest inquiry, 
"What must I do to be saved?" If he is directly pointed to 
the cross of Calvary, and told to bow instant and perfect 
submission to the higher law, which was honored and magni- 
fied by that sacrifice, we may soon expect to hear him exult- 
ing, Avith Paul, in his freedom from the law of sin and death, 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 187 

by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Josiis, and his deter- 
mination of mind to serve the law of God, through life and 
death. 

But, suggest to his mind, what has, perhaps, been reiterated 
in his ears a thousand times, the dogma of original sin, a sin- 
ful nature, innate moral depravity, total inability, the necessity 
of supernatural omnipotence, or some special communication 
of new power or abihty, he is probably distressed about his 
condition, and very anxious to get rehgion, or be made a 
christian. Perhaps he resolves to wait on God, in the use of 
means; means, as he is told, as perfectly inefficient as himself, 
w^ithout putting forth the least direct effort, or positive voli- 
tion to change his own character, or obey the higher law. 
And he may thus continue to wait on God, till the present 
special excitement is past, or till the cause of the alarm is re- 
moved, or the commercial harvest returns, or the pleasure 
season commences, and then the whole story is told in a single 
phrase, " All as you were." 

Thus the word of God, which is able to save the soul, is 
mystified, emasculated, and divested of its saving influence, 
and that common sense, which ought to direct the sinner into 
the path of peace and safety, is befogged in the romances of 
theological mysticism. And as long as these romances are 
reiterated as Christian doctrines, the moral influence and sav- 
ing effect of the gospel of Christ, the moral power of Chris- 
tianity, of the Church, and the Bible, in meliorating the con- 
dition of human society, will diminish. And dishonesty, 
violence, crime, barbarism, and all manner of vice will in- 
crease. Revivals of religion, and moral reforms will become 
shorter in duration, and less productive in saving and perma- 
nent fruits, and more material, mechanical, and superficial in 
their forms and agencies. And the Church will continue to 
assimilate more and more to the world, and degenerate into 
mere outward formality, and physical display. 

But God will still carry on his work of grace triumphantly, 
saving thousands, and tens of thousands of the fallen race, 
from every nation, kindred, and tongue under heaven. His 
presence which is the light of truth, is in every place, with all 



188 SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 

finite intelligence. All events are under his providential con- 
trol, and he can dispel every cloud of mysticism, and pervade 
any intellect or conscience with the light of truth, whenever 
he will. And sinners also will continue to reject the light of 
truth, to die impenitent, and perish forever, as long as the 
Prince of the power of the air can invent a theological fiction, 
or eject a cloud of mysticism. Because, it is the prerogative 
of every moral agent, absolutely essential to his nature and 
condition as a subject of moral government, to create his own 
moral character, and determine his own final destiny. 

Now, fellow sinner, if you are conscious that you are unre- 
generate, unreconciled to God, and his perfect law, your con- 
dition is perfectly simple and easy to be understood. And 
your duty, your interest, and your only method of escape 
from the penalty of the law of God, everlasting punishment, 
and the attainment of future happiness, is a plain, common 
sense, matter-of-fact business for yourself to do, and perfectly 
within your ability to accomplish with certainty, now, during 
your probation. You have transgressed the perfect law of 
the Lord, you have thus contracted guilt, and incurred the 
penalty of that law. That penalty, though now suspended by 
grace, cleaves to your person with the guilt of your sins, and 
must continue so to cleave, till you are absolved by the blood 
of the cross. As no person in the universe, but yourself 
alone, ever had any direct agency in making you a sinner, in 
making you guilty or liable to punishment, so, no agent in the 
universe can save you from the penalty of God's law, but 
yourself: not even the omnipotent Creator. A change of 
moral character is the only remedy. And you, yourself 
alone, can have direct agency in forming or changing your 
own character. 

Because moral character consists exclusively in the relation 
which your voluntary actions sustain to the law of God. Your 
business therefore is immediately to change the generic voli- 
tion of your will, or governing purpose of your mind, from 
transgression to obedience, from doing evil to doing good, 
from hating and evading the light of truth, to loving and seek- 
ing it. Or in other words, immediately comply wdth the terms 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 189 

of salvation proposed in the Gospel; "Repentance towards 
God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ." Acts, xx. 21. 
This change of the generic purpose of your mind, and the 
consequent change of conduct, are perfectly within your power 
or ability to make now. There is not the least obstacle or 
hinderance to your making the change immediately, but your 
own will and the voluntary accumulated strength of habit, 
which you have freely contracted under the law of sin and 
death. But all force of habit yields instantly before a direct 
positive decision of the will to change. The influence of habit 
may indeed return and occasionally prevail, as long as you 
continue in the flesh. But the generic volition of the will 
always triumphs, and governs the general conduct of the 
agent. And you are in the habit of making just such changes 
of purpose and conduct, in relation to other interests, pursuits 
or business, whenever adequate motives for such a change are 
l^resented. 

On the part of God every thing that infinite wisdom, poTver 
and goodness could do, by way of motive influence, to persuade 
or induce you to turn and live, has been done. On the very 
d^ay that sin entered into the world, God by his grace, through 
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, saved you with the 
rest of the race from non-existence, the dreadful forfeiture of 
Adam's sin. He has brought you mto being in favorable cir- 
cumstances, at a propitious period, under very great privileges 
and advantages. He has put you on probation under the per- 
fect dispensation of grace. He has made full provision for 
your perfect absolution from guilt and punishment, the moment 
you repent and turn. He has provided every thing necessary 
that you may insure your own perfect moral renovation and 
everlasting happiness. He has sustained you in this condition 
for a time more or less, nothwithstanding your transgressions. 
Ever since you were capable of perception, you have been 
surrounded by the providential goodness of God in rich pro- 
fusion, leading you to repentance. In the higher law, the 
Gospel of Christ, the whole power of God unto salvation has 
been put forth addressed to you, and you have felt its motive 
influences, and been conscious that these influences were suffi- 



190 SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 

cient, and ought to persuade you to repent, turn and live. 
But you have turned away from the light of truth, and per- 
haps looked at these motive influences, in the dark mirror of 
the law of sin and death ; and thus deceived yourself into 
neglect and procrastination. But you are still, if yet in pro- 
bation, surrounded with the light of truth, and an array of 
motive influences infinitely adequate to persuade a reasonable 
being. Now at once look at them in the perfect mirror of 
eternal truth, repent, believe, and be saved forever. Or turn 
away if you will, and forever hate, abhor and despise yourself, 
as a foolish, guilty man, and contemptible wretch, fit only for 
the deepest degradation and misery. This is your only alter- 
Dative. May God yet constrain you by the love of Christ. 



IV. 

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS; 



OR, 



THE TRUE THEORY OF MORAL RENOVATION. 



INTRODUCTION. 

To understand the nature, necessity, and method of ac- 
quiring that permanent change in which the salvation of the 
sinner consists, is to every man the most important acquisi- 
tion that can occupy his attention or awaken desire. It is 
the theme which occupies the most prominent place in the 
inspired volume. This topic was often on the lips of the di- 
vine Saviour, while here in the flesh. It is the principal bur- 
den of the message with which all his apostles are sent to the 
children of men. The prophets of olden time, when sent to 
fallen men, were commanded to say unto them, '' Turn ye, 
turn ye, for why will ye die ? " "• Cast away from you all 
your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed : and make 
you a new heart and a new spirit : for why will ye die, O 
house of Israel?" The Messiah's advent was announced by 
the command to " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
hand." The Saviour began his own public ministry with the 
same proclamation. And when Nicodemus came to him by 
night, an anxious inquiring sinner, to know what he should 
do to be saved, he answered him, " Verily, verily, I say unto 
thee, except a man be born again he can not see the kingdom 
of God." There must be a great, an important, and a perma- 
nent change. Therefore, no subject in this world can be more 
important to a man who has sinned than this saving change. 

(191) 



192 IXTRODUCTIOX. 

My object in introducing the subject in this plnce and in 
this connection, is to give it a full and clear discussion, but 
condensed into as short a compass as the nature and import- 
ance of the topic will permit : and to present it in as plain 
common sense language as may be practicable. My belief is 
that the subject, when divested of a little human invention and 
mysticism, is capable of being understood by all persons of 
common sense, common intellectual endowments, and common 
education. As it is a subject of vast importance, which deeply 
affects the character and interests of every human agent who 
ever sinned in the flesh, I, therefore, infer that we ought not 
to doubt but that the moral Governor of the world has, in 
the dispensation of his grace, made the subject plain and easy 
to be understood by all who are interested or need the change. 
I do not believe that there is any incomprehensible mystery 
hanging over this subject, more than any other subject of 
revealed truth ; nor that any part of the process is kept hid 
from the subjects of it, in the secret counsels of God ; nor 
that any supernatural or irresistible power, influence or caus- 
ality is employed by the divine Author in eflecting the change. 
Nor do I believe that any new substance, material or imma- 
terial, or new endowment or ability or susceptibility, is pro- 
duced in, or added to, the subject of this change. 

Having, in the preceding essay, discussed the cause and 
manner of man's depravity and ruin, under the title of the 
Law of Sin and Death, I propose now to discuss his recovery 
imder the title of the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. 
I apprehend that a correct analysis of the law of the Spirit of 
life, and a true description of the progressive change which it 
produces in all willing subjects to its motive influences, will 
give the true and adequate illustration of our subject, and 
render it intelligible and comprehensible to all interested 
who wish to know and are willing to bestow the necessary 
thought and reflection. 

My only desire and sole endeavor, in the discussion of the 
subject, will be to set the testimony of God's word, respect- 
ing this change, before the mind in a connected, continuous, 
plain and perspicuous method. The prominent points of the 



THE NATURE OF THE CHANGE. 193 

subject, on which I propose to throw the light of divine 
truth, are the following : 

1st. The nature of the change, or of that moral renovation 
which constitutes the salvation of the sinner. 

2d. The necessity of this very change in the case of every 
sinful human agent in the flesh. 

3d. The Author of this change, or the primary moving 
agent. 

4th. The instrument, cause or influence, that produces the 
change. 

5th. A summary of results. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE NATURE OF THE CHANGE. WHAT IS CHANGED ? IN 

W^HAT DOES IT CONSIST ? WHERE IS IT LOCATED ? 

The change in which the salvation of the sinner consists, 
as far as efiected in this life, is a change of moral character 
and its consequents. Moral character is the only thing 
changed during present probation in the flesh. Moral char- 
acter consists in the relation which the voluntary actions, 
emotions and volitions of the moral agent sustain towards 
the law of God. If the desires, volitions and actions of the 
agent sustain the relation of obedience to the law of God, his 
character is good, right and holy, and he needs no change. 
If his desires and actions sustain the relation of disobedience, 
or transgression of the law of God, his character is bad and 
must be changed, or he must remain miserable. What is 
truly called moral character includes all the voluntary emo- 
tions or states of the mind that may be referred to, or which 
bear any relation to the law of God. Voluntary action, in- 
deed, includes all those states of the mind, or those feelings 
and emotions, which the agent chooses or willingly indulges. 
Even declining to act, either physically or mentally, necessarily 
9 



194 THE NATUFwE OF Till: CIIAXGE. 

involves an act of the will, which may be an act of obedience 
or of transgression of the law : and therefore must go to help 
constitute the character. Character also includes those states 
of mind, or habitual actions, which are called inclination, dis- 
position, propensity, bias and proclivity. These are all results 
of antecedent voluntary action. They are all created by con- 
tinuous repetition of the same emotions and actions of the 
agent ; and necessarily belong to his character, because he 
created them by his own action exclusively. By frequent in- 
dulgence they acquire a kind of permanence, or continuous 
repetition, which is sometimes mistaken for something innate 
or pertaining to nature. But every thing of the kind, whether 
good or bad, holy or sinful, is, in all human agents, nothing 
but acquired habit. In the case of unregenerate sinners, 
their whole character is made up of transgressions, and all 
their moral habits and proclivities are thus constituted by 
continuous transgression. This is their entire moral charac- 
ter. '' For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet 
offend in one point, he is guilty of all." Jas. ii. 10. He has 
contracted the entire character of a sinner. Compare with 
this Ezek. xviii. 24. 

We conclude, therefore, that a radical and entire change of 
moral character is the great desideratum and indispensable 
requisite, without which no sinner can ever enter the king- 
dom of heaven, or enjoy perfect happiness. But when this 
change is perfected, all is attained that can be desired or 
needed or effected in this life. The sinner will then be made 
meet, to be a j^artaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. 
When this change shall be entirely perfected, the saint will 
be actually enjoying that eternal life which is the gift of God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. As sin is the cause of all the 
misery in God's moral kingdom, the perfecting of this change 
of character from sin to righteousness must constitute com- 
plete salvation. This is the very kind of salvation for which 
Jesus suffered on the cross, and by which he derived his 
name. As all sin and sinfulness, and moral depravity, per- 
tain to moral character exclusively, this entire change must 
include the whole of salvation. As perfect rectitude of moral 



THE NATUIIE OF THE CHANGE. 19j 

character constitute the highest honor, dignity and blessed- 
ness of moral beings, even all the glory and blessedness of the 
Deity, the perfecting of this change will leave no higher honor, 
glory or felicity, to which the created intelligent can aspire. 

This change of moral character, when reference is had to 
the radical commencement of it in the soul, is called regene- 
ration. It always involves a generic act of the will of the sub- 
ject, turning from sin to righteousness. By the Saviour it is 
described by the metaphor of a second birth. " Except a 
man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
John iii. 3. Paul calls it a new creation, a work of God. 
Eph. ii. 10. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ 
Jesus." And the regenerated person he calls a new creature. 
'' Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 
2 Cor. V. 17. The Apostle James calls it a being begotten of 
God, with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of 
first-fruits of his creatures. James i. 18. When the agency 
of the subject of this change is the more prominent idea to be 
expressed, it is generally called conversion, or a turning of 
the agent from sin unto righteousness. " Repent and turn 
yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not 
be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, 
whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart and 
a new spirit ; for why will ye die, O house of Israel ? " Ezek. 
xviii. 30, 31. 

Whenever the change, which constitutes the sinner's salva- 
tion, is mentioned in the Bible, in connection with the author 
of it, or w^ith the cause of it, or with its final results, a change 
of moral character is always expressed or implied, or neces- 
sarily understood in the language used. " Seeing ye have pu- 
rified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto 
unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another 
with a pure heart fervently. Being born again, not of cor- 
ruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which 
liveth and abideth for ever." 1 Pet. i. 22, 23. 

In the phrase, " Except a man be born of water and of the 
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," the lan- 
guage used plainly shows that a change of moral character, 



19G THE I«J^ATURE OF THE CIIAXGE. 

and nothing else can be meant. For a man to be created by 
God unto good works in Christ Jesns, can mean nothing else, 
more or less, than a change of moral character. To be sanc- 
tified through the word of truth, means nothing but a radical 
change of character in relation to the Law of God. To be 
begotten with the word of truth, necessarily implies a change 
of moral character. For the word of truth is the perfect Law 
of the Lord, the only rule of moral action : whatever, there- 
fore, is begotten or produced by that word of truth, must go 
to constitute right moral character. The whole change and 
the only change which fallen man are ever exhorted or com- 
manded to seek and secure at all events, on peril of future mis- 
cry, is merely a change of moral character. It is to cease to 
do evil and learn to do well. To cast away all their trans- 
gressions, and make themselves a new heart and a new spirit, 
that they may not die. It is to repent, that they may be saved 
from their sins by the washing of regeneration and renewing 
of the Holy Ghost ; and to believe, with that faith which 
works by love and purifies the heart, that they may be made 
the righteousness of God in Christ. The whole that is re- 
quired, or mentioned in the Bible as necessary to salvation, in 
the case of redeemed sinners, is included in a complete change 
of moral character. This is the only change for the better 
that is possible in the case of rebellious subjects of moral gov- 
ernment. And this is also the only change that can meliorate 
their condition, or confer any permanent benefit on them, or 
sa\'e them from any evil consequent of their rebellion, either 
felt or feared, present or future. I therefore conclude, with- 
out hesitation or a shadow of doubt, that the change without 
which the Saviour declares a man can not enter into the king- 
dom of God, the change which God by his grace effects in 
sinful men for their salvation, consists exclusively in a change 
of moral character, and nothing else. This agrees with the 
uniform experience of all persons who give any evidence of a 
saving change, or indulge a rational hope of salvation. They 
never exhibit any change or acquisition, but a change of moral 
character. When they describe the bestowments of grace, 
and all the emotions and affections that constitute their religi- 



THE NATURE OF THE CITAXGE. 197 

Oils experience, they tell us of nothing but what is necessarily 
included in a change of moral character for the better. The 
new heart, which God gives, and the new spirit which he puts 
within them, are the voluntary emotions of love, submission, 
and obedience, produced by the motive miluences of the truth, 
and constituting right moral character. And all the new pow- 
ers, abilities, or moral strength ever bestowed upon, or found, 
or felt, or exhibited by any regenerated person, are nothing 
more nor less than the decided resolution and generic volitions 
of his own will, in view of the truth, renouncing and forsaking 
his former vicious habits, and commencing a new and right 
course of life and action. The change is, therefore, always a 
change of the voluntary actions and emotions of the subject, 
from wrong to right. It is always a relative change, a change 
in the relations Avhich the voluntary emotions and actions of 
the subject sustain toward the higher law. The voluntary act 
or emotion of the soul, immediately preceding the change, 
w^as an act of disobedience to the law of God, or of rejection 
of the light of truth, or a voluntary emotion of hatred or 
aversion toward his law or providence. It was a sinful act 
of the subject. The very next successive act of the soul, in 
which the change of regeneration, or the commencement of 
moral renovation consists, is an act of obedience to the higher 
law, or an emotion of love or complacency toward God, con- 
curring with the divine Spirit, yielding to the motive influence 
of truth, and complying with the terms of salvation. It is 
alw^ays a right emotion or volition of the soul, and the outward 
expression will be an act of obedience to the law of the 
Lord. 

Another fact in relation to the nature of this change is, that 
it cannot consist in supplying or increasing any power or 
ability to perform right moral action. Because the subject of 
regeneration always and necessarily possesses, and acts in the 
exercise of all the power or ability to perform right moral ac- 
tion before the change, that he ever possesses after it. Power 
or ability to all right action, within the sphere of his duty and 
accountability, is absolutely essential to the being of a moral 
agent. It is of his nature. Deprived of it he must cease to 



198 THE NATURE OF THE CHANGE. 

be a moral agent, cease to be a man or human agent, cease to 
be an accomitable creature, or a sinner. And of course he 
must cease to be a subject of moral government, or of regen- 
eration, or of any moral change or quality whatever. A sin- 
ner without ability, both physical and moral, for all right 
action within the sphere of his duty and accountability, is a 
solecism, an absurdity, a moral impossibility. With the same 
identical and jDcrsonal powers, abilities, or faculties, both phys- 
ical, intellectual and moral, the unregenerated sinner hated 
God, resisted his Si3irit, and transgressed his law yesterday, 
with which the converted believer to-day loves, obeys, and 
worships him. And no regenerated person, since the fall, has 
ever been enabled to exhibit any new endowment, or faculty, 
or ability, after regeneration, which he did not possess and 
employ in sinning antecedent to that change. The opinion, 
therefore, Avhich some have entertained, that man by sinning 
lost or forfeited, and was judiciously deprived of his powers, 
or ability for right moral action ; and the opinion that propen- 
sity to sin, however strong it may be, which they affirm is 
innate or natural to all men since the fall, renders him unable 
to do right, are both very pernicious errors. Each of them, 
if it were true, would exclude all obligation, accountability, 
retribution, and moral government from this world and the 
human race. For every man's conscience and the word of 
God, absolve him perfectly from all obligation, accountabil- 
ity, and guilt, beyond the sphere of his ability for right ac- 
tion. And every man of common sense knows intuitively by 
his own consciousness, that whenever he committed sin or did 
wrong, he possessed the ability to have refrained or to have 
done right. And this consciousness is the only thing by which 
the conviction of sin or guilt can ever be awakened in his soul. 
Every man on the earth, who has lived to begin the develop- 
ment of his moral endowments, and the formation of moral char- 
acter by transgression, believes this last position stated, what- 
ever his profession or creed may say, just as firmly and as un- 
doubtingly as he believes his own existence, and constantly 
confesses and acts on this truth, in all the relations of human 
beings in this state of probation, except his own relation to the 



TTIE NATURE OF THE CHANGE. 199 

higher law. There he would rather be excused if possible. 
If he cannot invent an excuse himself, he will accept his help- 
lessness, as described by his religious teacher, though he does 
not believe a word of it. There can, however, be no lack of 
ability in the case of any sinner. And no communication, or 
increase of power or ability, can be included in the change of 
regeneration or sanctification. It must, therefore, be simply 
and exclusively a change of moral character. 

There is one more fact necessary to be considered, in order 
to set the change, which constitutes the sinner's salvation, 
beyond all controversy and doubt. In distributing the retri- 
butions of his moral kingdom, God never takes into account 
any thing but moral character. He never mentions any thing 
as a ground or reason for penal infliction or gracious reward, 
except what belongs to moral character. Nothing is ever 
mentioned in the word of God as the procuring cause of future 
happiness or misery in the state of retribution, but the volun- 
tary actions of the agent, during his probation in the flesh, 
the relations of which to the higher law constitute his moral 
character. Paul declaring the principles of the administration 
of God over the sinful race of men, says, " Who will render 
to every man according to his deeds : — In the day when God 
shall judge the secrets of men, by Jesus Christ according to 
my gospel." Rom. ii. 6, etc. " We must all appear before 
the judgment seat of Christ ; that every one may receive the 
things done in his body, according to that he hath done, 
whether it be good or bad." 2 Cor. v. 10. ''And behold I 
come quickly ; and my reward is with me, to give every man 
according as his work shall be." Rev. xxii. 12. "Also unto 
thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy ; for thou renderest to every 
man according to his work." Ps. Ixiii. 12. "I the Lord search 
the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according 
to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." Jer. 
xvii. 10. Such is the uniform testimony of the Bible on this 
point, without an exception, that I remember. As the moral 
character of a man includes all the relations of his doings to 
the law of God, and as that law inflicts its rewards and pen- 
alties by its own motive influence, independent of all other 



200 NECESSITY OF THIS CHANGE. 

influences : it seems impossible, therefore, to conceive how any 
sinner should be saved in any other way or method than by 
bringing his moral character into perfect conformity to the 
requirements of that law. When this conformity of moral 
character is effected, it w^ill be impossible for him to suffer 
penal infliction. And as soon as he is delivered from the law 
of sin and death, by the dissolution of the body, he must be 
perfectly blessed and happy under the influence of that perfect 
law. But no other conceivable change of any kind w^hatever 
can save him from liability to penal suffering for sin. Hence 
w^e conclude with the utmost confidence, that the sinner's sal- 
vation, from beginning to the end, consists in a change of his 
moral character from evil to good, from sin to holiness, by 
ceasing to do evil and learning to do well, and in nothing 
else. 



CHAPTER II. 



NECESSITY or THIS CHANGE. 



With respect to the necessity of this change, the testimony 
of the Saviour of sinners is clear, full, and conclusive. " Verily, 
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water, and of 
the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.*" Jno. iii. 5. 
This testimony to the necessity of an entire change of moral 
character, in order to enter the kingdom of God, or enjoy fu- 
ture happiness, is constantly reiterated in all the revelations 
of grace to man, from the day of his fall to the present time. 
It is exhibited and illustrated in all the ordinances and forms 
of religious worship appointed by God. It is taught in so 
many different forms of language, and illustrated by so many 
types and symbols, that no student of the Bible, or frequenter 
of Christian worship can be ignorant of it. It is also con- 
stantly suggested by the intuitions of natural conscience, 
w^henever the sinner deliberately transgresses the higher law. 
And yet it is no easy task to make sinners feel its necessity. 



NECESSITY OF THIS CHANGE. 201 

And no influence in the innverse, but that of the sight, of the 
absohite perfection of the law of the Lord, can ever make any 
sinner realize his own personal need of such a change. Hence 
the importance of setting forth the necessity of this change, in 
the clear and perfect light of divine truth. For though the 
acknowledgement of the necessity of some kind of moral 
change, is very common throughout Christendom, and indeed 
throughout heathendom, too, as far as any religious sense is 
manifested, still the real cause and nature of this necessity is 
apprehended by few, even among the subjects of the change. 
1st. This change is necessary, not merely because God hath 
made it a condition of reconciliation betAveen himself and the 
rebellious transgressors of his law, but because without it no 
man can enter the kingdom of God, or see his face, but as an 
enemy ; or be happy, or escape punishment out of God's king- 
dom. Should God pronounce the j^ardon of all sin in the 
w^orld, or even proclaim a universal indulgence to men, still 
the sinner, retaining his sinful character, must remain a mis- 
erable outcast, suffering the penal consequences of his sins. 
Though it is perfectly suitable and becoming the divine Sov- 
ereign of the universe, out of respect to his own official char- 
acter, to make a perfect moral reformation of conduct, a 
condition indispensable to a reconciliation, still it is not an ar- 
bitrary condition. Xor is it an act of sovereignty merely, 
which might be dispensed with, but for the dignity of the 
Sovereign, and the integrity of the law. Reconciliation to 
God and his moral government, on the part of the sinner, 
necessarily involves a total change of moral character, and is 
absolutely impossible without it. Sin is enmity against God. 
Rom. viii. 7. God is perfect in holiness. Therefore, recon- 
ciliation of the sinner to God must include a total renunciation 
of sin, and rectification of the moral character. Were no con- 
dition at all demanded on the part of God, still, without this 
change, no salvation of the sinner can exist. The enjoyment 
of heaven is as impossible to an intelligent being, retaining the 
least defilement of sin, as the enjoyment of health would be, 
while the body was infected with the virus of the plague. 
Because it is in keeping the judgments of the Lord, or obed- 
9'^ 



202 NECESSITY OF THIS CHAXGE. 

ience to his law, that the great reward and bUss of the re- 
deemed consists. The eternal life, which is the gift of God, 
through Jesus Christ, is a life of perfect righteousness. The 
vital breath of the redeemed soul is obedience to the higher 
law. Hence the necessity of this change is absolutely im- 
perious on the part of the subject. Xot all the grace and 
glory of heaven could make him happy, or give him peace and 
rest w^ithout it. The omnipresent God would still be to the 
guilty sinner, in every place, and in any place conceivable in 
the universe, a consuming fire. 

2d. This necessity of a perfect change of moral character 
in order to salvation is constantly illustrated and confirmed 
in the relations of sin and misery, as cause and effect in the 
present condition of men. For though the present is not a 
state of retribution, but of gracious probation ; and though 
the natural consequences of sin are mercifully postponed and 
mitigated, as far as possible, by the providential arrangements 
of this world ; and though the sin and violence, and consequent 
misery of mankind are greatly restrained and prevented by the 
influence of the gospel ; yet we see in thousands of relations 
and events, the indissoluble connection of sin and misery, as 
cause and effect. Every sinner, therefore, by his own experi- 
ence and observation may, if he will, know his need of a total 
renovation of moral character. And no sinner can avoid feel- 
ing his need of this change, but by turning away from, and 
closing his mental vision against the light of truth, as it shines 
in the higher law. This may be done for a time, more or less, 
by engrossing the whole mind with physical interests and 
sensual enjoyments. This is the cause our Saviour assigned 
for the stupidity and hesitancy of Nicodemus in not under- 
standing the nature and necessity of this change, when he had 
described them to him. " For every one that doeth evil hateth 
the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be 
reproA^ed." This universal law of moral delinquency, or law 
of sin and death, as Paul calls it, is the only thing that hinders 
any sinner, and every sinner, who hears the proclamation of 
grace, from feeling his need of the change, and immediately 
complying Avith the terms of salvation. The necessity of a 



NECESSITY OF THIS CIIAXGi:. 203 

perfect moral change is nevertheless ahsohite, and perfectly 
obvious to the reason and common sense of every transgres- 
sor, who Avill receive the light, or even listen to the intuitions 
of his own intellect on the subject. If any one, therefore, re- 
mains ignorant of the nature of the change, or insensible to its 
necessity, his ignorance is voluntary, and his insensibility wil- 
ful ; because the light of truth is in the world and always 
shining from the book of nature and the book of revelation, 
and often forcing conviction on the human intellect and con- 
science. 

3d. Another ground of necessity for this moral change of 
character in the salvation of sinners is, the consideration that 
it would be a very unjust procedure tow^ard all obedient sub- 
jects of moral government to restore rebellious subjects 
to the same privileges and enjoyments, without a total re- 
formation of character. It Avould be a confounding of all 
distinction between right and w^rong, between merit and de- 
merit, between sin and holiness. It cannot, therefore, be 
under the government of a holy and just Sovereign. It is 
impossible under the perfect and unchangeable law of the 
Lord. The law is unchangeable. It can not be altered, abated 
or set aside. It must have its course, and produce its legiti- 
mate results. Men have sinned, and under that law, which 
unites sin and misery as antecedent and consequent, they 
must be wretched till they are perfectly freed from sin. 

4th. Men are social beings. Intelligence necessarily involves 
sociability. Society is essential to the well-being and happi- 
ness of human intelligents. But sinful associations necessarily 
result in misery. God's moral kingdom is a system of social 
duties and social enjoyments. But sinful and holy beings can 
not sympathize and unite in the performance of social duties, 
or in the enjoyment of social pleasures. The pure intellectual 
and spiritual employments and enjoyments of the heavenly 
state, are totally incompatible with, and absolutely impossible 
to sinners, continuing such. Saving sinful men and advancing 
them to these employments and enjoyments is, therefore, no- 
thing different, and nothing, more nor less, than the identical 
moral change which God requires of sinners. God and his 



204 NECESSITY OF THIS CHANGE. 

law are unchangeable. The sinful subject must change. Om- 
nipotence can save him from everlasting misery, in no otlier 
way, than by persuading him to change his entire moral 
character. 

5th. But the perfect adaptation of the higher law to the 
nature of man, confirms the impossibility of salvation to the 
sinner, but in the perfect renovation of his moral character. 
Man was created in the image of God. This image of God, 
in which man was created, consisted in his moral endowments. 
Among these endowments is the susceptibility of distinguish- 
ing between right and wrong, good and evil, sin and holiness, 
and of appreciating, rejoicing in, and finding pleasure and 
happiness in the excellence and beauty of moral good, and of 
hating, abhoring, and despising the deformity and odiousness 
of moral evil. This image of God in man is indestructible 
and unchangeable. It necessarily includes immortality, or a 
susceptibility of continuous being. It is essential to man's 
existence. Without it he can not exist at all. Divested of 
it, he would instantly cease to exist, cease to be a man, cease 
to be a moral agent, and cease to be a subject of moral gov- 
ernment at all. Hence, there is in the nature of every man, 
whatever his moral character may be, a basis or susceptibility 
of perfect felicity, in the consciousness of moral excellence 
and beauty, and a basis also of perfect misery in the conscious- 
ness of moral evil, pollution, and deformity. This truth is 
constantly illustrated in human society by the respect, awe, 
reverence and fear which moral rectitude and virtue inspire 
in wicked men, even in the most vile and criminal. The same 
is illustrated and confirmed by the eloquent, sublime and beau- 
tiful descriptions of moral virtue, composed by men of very 
vile, immoral, licentious and criminal characters. This proves 
to demonstration the existence of the image of God unim- 
j)aired, in the wickedest man on the earth. Though, for the 
present, it may be hid from all created vision, and even from 
the consciousness of the possessor, by the clouds of falsehood 
and mysticism, constantly generated by the law of sin and 
death, still it exists in perfection, ready to act as soon as the 
light of truth is permitted to shine upon it. This may con- 



THE AUTIIOKSIIIP OF THE CIIAXGE. 205 

tiniie as long as the sinner continues impenitent in the flesh. 
But when the impenitent sinner passes out of the flesh, he 
stands a naked, disembodied sj^irit, in the perfect light of 
eternal truth, shining from the perfect law of the Lord. The 
law of sin and death has ceased to exist. All error, falsehood, 
self-deception, and every possible disguise will have vanished 
for ever. The light of truth must constantly reflect on his 
intellectual vision, his own vile, and odious sinful character. 
Look which Avay he will, before or behind, to the right or left, 
up towards his Maker, or down u23on the earth, this higher 
law, like ten thousand perfect mirrors, will throw back upon 
his sight his own depraved and hateful moral likeness. 

And this indestructible image of God, which constitutes his 
very nature, as an accountable being, must for ever burn 
with shame, self-contempt, conscious degradation, and the 
abhorrence of all amiable and worthy intelligents in the uni- 
verse. But oh ! the self-torment of a guilty conscience, under 
the perfect light of truth, is indescribable and inconceivable. 
Such is '' the wrath to come." Such is the unquenchable fire. 
And such the '' everlasting destruction from the presence of 
the Lord, and from the glory of his poAver." All the atoning 
merit and perfect righteousness of the Son of God, were it 
transferred to the impenitent sinner, could not save him, or 
mitigate his self-abhorence a moment. The richer the grace 
and merit of the Mediator proffered to him, and the more 
glorious the power of truth revealed for his salvation, the 
deeper his degradation, and the keener the self-torment. The 
sinner's character must be totally renovated. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE AUTHOESHIP OF THE CHANGE. 

All who believe in a complete radical change of moral 
character ascribe the authorship to God, the infinite and 



203 THE ArTIIORSIIIP OF THE CIIAXGE. 

eternal Spirit, the moral Governor of the universe, and first 
cause of all things. The testimony of the Bible to this truth 
is copious, uniform, full and explicit. Says the Sa\iour, " Ex- 
cept a man be born of water, that is, of the Spirit, he can not 
enter into the kingdom of God." Water is here mentioned 
only as a symbol of the truth. Washing or sprinkling with 
water has constituted a part of all divinely instituted worship 
in all ages. It has always been used as a symbol of moral 
purification or reformation of moral character. It can in this 
connection only symbolize the truth, the means by which 
moral renovation is produced. Being born of water, and of 
the Spirit, must, therefore, mean a change of moral character, 
of which the Holy Spirit is the author and the word of truth 
the cause. Hence the entire change of moral character in 
which the salvation of the sinner consists, from the first en- 
lightenment of the soul, or awakening of the subject, to the 
perfect sanctification of the believer, is all ascribed to the 
Holy Spirit as the author and prime agent of the whole. 
Other agents are employed in the work of moral renovation 
only as armor-bearers of the Spirit, in multiplying and dis- 
tributing the weapons, and applying the means of conversion 
and sanctification. But the authorship of the change belongs 
exclusively to God the Spirit, the third person of the God- 
head. The change originates in the gracious purpose of his 
Avill. The only means, instrumentality, cause or influence, 
by which the change is effected exclusively of the subject, is 
the same Avill of God contained in his law. It is, therefore, 
his work peculiarly and appropriately, as he is not only the 
author of it, but the means are all of him immediately, the 
subject is his erring and lost creature, who lives and moves 
and has his being in him. He, therefore, claims all the glory 
and praise of the whole work, from beginning to end. " Not 
by might, nor by })ower, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of 
hosts." Zech. iv. 6. Paul says, "For the law of the Spirit of 
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 
death." Ilom. viii. 2. To Titus he says, "Not by works of 
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy 
he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of 



THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE CIIAXGE. 207 

the Holy Ghost ; which he shed on us abundantly through 
Jesus Christ our Saviour." Tit. iii. 5, 6. 

But in order to understand the process by which this sal- 
vation is effected, and to know^ definitely what the subject 
may and ought to do in relation to it, it will be necessary to 
describe the person of the Sanctifier, and the law^ of the Spirit 
of life, or the method by which moral change is produced. 

Personality of the Sanctijier, 

Person and personality are variations in the forms and use 
of words and the construction of language, to express the 
varieties of the relations w^hich moral agents sustain to each 
other, and to things in general, from which duty and obliga- 
tion result. All personality, therefore, pertains exclusively to 
these relations, and to nothing else. Whether predicated of 
God, men, angels or devils, personality can only qualify or 
express any meaning in reference to the relations they sus- 
tain to other beings. When, therefore, personality is ascribed 
to God in human language, it has respect alone to the rela- 
tions Avhich God sustains towards men in their present fallen 
state, under a gracious probation. Personality can have no 
reference to the substantive being or essence of the Deity ; 
and, therefore, whenever predicated of the divine essence, 
(as it often is both by unitarians and trinitarians,) it involves 
the party in the most profound absurdity, contradiction, and 
mysticism. In this error doubtless originated most of the 
subjects of controversy about the trinity and incarnation of 
the Deity, and the inexplicable dogmas of the one party, and 
absurd infidelity of the other. 

But when personality is applied to the relations of God to 
fallen men, in its appropriate and true signification, it removes 
the whole category of mysticism by w^hich the subject has 
been befogged for ages. Godhead is a word constructed to 
express, in the concrete, all the different relations which God 
sustains to men since the fall. These relations are distin- 
guished into three personal varieties ; or they are designated 
by three varieties of personality, very properly called the 
three persons of the Godhead. The first person, designated 



208 THE AUTIIORSIIir OF THE CTTAX«"^,E. 

as the Father, inchides all the natural relations of God to 
man antecedent to the fall ; as Creator, Preserver, Benefac- 
tor, etc. The second person, called the Son, includes those 
relations which he sustains to men subsequent to the fall and 
antecedent to the commencement of their moral renovation, 
such as the relations of Mediator, Redeemer, etc. The third, 
called the Holy Ghost, includes those relations to men which 
he sustains as their Sanctifier and Saviour from sin. All the 
relations included in the second and third personalities were 
constituted or brought into existence by the transgression of 
man. They had no existence antecedent to that event. 

But God, in the exercise of his infinite goodness, has con- 
stituted the second and third personalities of the Godhead 
for the purpose of accomplishing the beneficent w^orks of 
mercy and grace which these new relations had imposed on 
infinite goodness. The second person he constituted by 
taking into personal unity with himself the man Jesus of 
Nazareth ; and thus prepared a jDcrson qualified to fill the 
office of Mediator, and a person able to perform the work of 
redemption. No such person ever existed in the universe 
till the incarnation of Deity in the person of Jesus Christ. 
The third person he constituted by embodying in human lan- 
guage his own will, that is, his perfect law, that converts the 
soul, and which marks the line of distinction between right 
and wrong, as it runs through all the relations of moral 
agents, from the humblest accountable being on earth up to 
the throne of Jehovah. This is the will of God which Christ 
the Mediator reveals to us for our salvation, and which is 
now recorded in the Bible. " By the which will we are sanc- 
tified through the ofiering of the body of Christ once for all." 
Heb. X. 10. 

The necessity of constituting these new and unique person- 
alities results from the absolute perfection of the law of God, 
and the contrary opposing influence of the law of sin and 
death. Antecedent to the fall this perfect law of the Lord 
was intuitive in every human intellect. That is, as soon as 
the human intellect perceived any relation which involved 
duty and obligation, the duty of that relation was instantly 



THE AUTIIOESIIIP OF THE CHANGE. 209 

and intuitively niuierstood, and the obligation was felt and 
concurred with. But such is the law of sin and death, that 
the first voluntary act of transgression closes the intellectual 
vision of the transgressor against the law of God. " For 
every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to 
the hght, lest his deeds should be reproved." The immediate 
influence of the first act of transgression on the intellect and 
conscience of the transgressor, according to the law of sin 
and death, amounts to perfect nullification of the law in his 
case. It is not a loss of ability, but a voluntary averting from 
the hated light of truth. As long as he continues in the flesh 
impenitent, he continues under the law of sin and death. 
Some new medium of access to his moral susceptibilities, 
without destroying life and sending him to perdition, must 
be devised, or the sinner is irretrievably lost. For if God 
should abandon him, or withdraw his favor the moment after 
his first transgression, (as Dr. Hodge says He treats all men 
the first moment of their existence,) the law of the Lord would 
reach his moral susceptibilities in a moment, and begin the 
execution of its horrid and irresistible penalty, dissolving his 
physical nature and ending his probation at once, as in the 
case of Adam. "- For the word of God (this light of truth) is 
quick and poAverful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, 
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and 
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts 
and intents of the heart." Heb. vi. 12. 

But God does not abandon, nor regard, nor treat as out of 
his favor, a single soul of the human race, till that soul has 
enjoyed a gracious probation in the flesh, or has been removed 
beyond the reach of falsehood, temptation, and sin. On the 
contrary, he did interpose immediately on the occurrence of 
the first evil deed committed by a human agent ; not to exe- 
cute a judicial sentence of eternal punishment on myriads of 
innocent subjects, but by a gracious providence to shield the 
sinner from the light of his perfect law, and preserve his 
physical and probationary existence till he might reach his 
moral susceptibilities with a healing ray of that same light of 
truth reflected from the cross of calvary, tinged with the mild 



210 THE AUTIIOr.SIIIP OF THE CIIAXGE. 

and cheering hues of infinite goodness and redeeming lore. 
"For our God is a consuming fire." Heb. xii. 27. " God is 
light, and in him is no darkness at alh" 1 Jno. i. 5. " His 
presence is every where." Ps. cxxxix. But reflected from 
the cross of Christ, this consuming fire becomes the light of 
life to the penitent believer. Thus God regards and treats 
every transgressor of the human race. This he does in the 
third person of the Godhead, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, 
whose office it is to reprove the world of sin, of righteous- 
ness, and of judgment ; and to show the things of Christ to 
all who repent and believe in him, and thus to perfect their 
moral renovation. 

When Adam had sinned and brought death upon himself, 
God assumed the human form, walked in the garden as a 
human person, called the culprits in a human voice. They 
came trembling from the bush. They could not endure the 
light a single day, and hid themselves to eke out their animal 
life a few short hours. The Judge, in the second person of 
the Godhead, pronounced sentence upon the tempter. In 
uttering that sentence, there is mentioned a seed of the 
woman ; a ray of mercy from the Son of righteousness, beam- 
ing through that fiery law ; a seed that will be an adversary 
of the tempter. How the gracious light brightens ! A seed 
that shall bruise his head, crush him, destroy him. Glorious 
salvation ! They were melted into penitence. They believed. 
They were pardoned. Their guilt was for ever removed. 
Not a word of penal infliction for that sin has ever been 
heard from God or his word, and not a pang of penal sufier- 
ing has been felt or can be for that sin, while God reigns. 

Thus the perfect law of the Lord, which was by a single 
evil deed converted into a flaming sword turning every way 
to keep the way of the tree of life, is graciously changed into 
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, freeing the peni- 
tent sinner from the law of sin and death. This law, as now 
magnified and made honorable by the cross of Christ, has be- 
come the power of God unto salvation to every one that be- 
lieveth, whether Jew or Greek, Christian or pagan. But 
without an atonement this perfect law has no such saving 



THE AUTriOr.STIIP OF THE CHANGE. 211 

power, but to every transgressor carries a sentence of death 
on the day of transgression. " For to be carnally minded is 
death." That is, a sight of the liorrid evil, degradation and 
tendency of sin, in the clear, full, and perfect light of the 
higher law, must produce death, dissolution of the sensitive 
organization, and continuous torment of the immortal soul. 

The Laio of the Spirit of Life, — How constituted, 

" But God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful 
flesh, and for sin, (or by a sacrifice for sin,) condemned sin in 
the flesh : That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled 
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
That is, that those who believe and obey might be perfectly 
renovated in moral character, and conformed to the law. 
Thus the law of the Spirit of life is constituted by embody- 
ing, in human language, the Law of the Lord, as illustrated 
by the cross of Christ, and thus made perceptible by the de- 
praved physical senses of sinful men. The word law, as used 
by Paul, Rom. viii. 2, is an antithetical parallel to the law of 
sin, used in Rom. vii. 23, and expresses the method which 
God uses to deliver the sinner from the law of sin and death. 
Hence the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and the 
third person of the Godhead, is each of them the same agent, 
w^ho, in the beginning, created the heaven and the earth, and 
moved on the face of the waters, putting the physical laws of 
matter into operation for the reduction of chaos into organic 
and useful forms. The same divine agent spake during his 
incarnation, in the second person of the Godhead, in personal 
unity w^ith the man Jesus Christ. The same identical agent 
that freed Paul from the law of sin and death, and now re- 
proves the world of sin, and shows the penitent believer the 
things of Christ, in the beginning of the physical creation, 
said, " Let there be light, and there was light." And this 
identical agent, in another subsequent beginning, in the per- 
son of the Word, that is, of the Son, " was with God, and 
was God." " In him was life ; and the life was the light of 
men." Jno. i. 4. And this same identical agent is the Al- 
mighty Creator of the heaven and the earth, and all that in 



212 THE AUTiior.siiir or the citaxge. 

them is : the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and the only 
Saviour of sinners, acting in a variety of persons, according 
to the various personal relations from which the duties and 
obHgations he discharges are derived. 

The first transgression of each sinning human agent pro- 
duces a new and peculiar relation between that agent and his 
Maker, his moral Sovereign. It is the relation between a 
guilty rebel and his infinitely wise, good, and gracious moral 
Governor. The obligation resulting from this relation, on 
the part of the Sovereign, is to do all that can rightfully, 
equitably, and justly be done, for the salvation of the misera- 
ble, deluded sinner ; and, on the part of the sinner, to comply 
immediately with such terms as the infinitely wise, good and 
gracious Sovereign may prescribe. Xow, the higher law, the 
law of eternal truth and equity, " The law of the Lord (which) 
is perfect, converting the soul," contains a gracious proviso, 
a remedial clause, a provision of mercy, perfectly adapted, by 
infinite wisdom, to this very contingency. If the sinner will 
consent to be saved by grace, if he will accept life by a Medi- 
ator, he may yet live. In the second person of the Godhead 
the divine Mediator immediately undertakes the fulfilment 
of the terms of this proviso. On the very day the contin- 
gency occurred, he was present in the appropriate personality, 
with every thing necessary arranged, prepared, and ready for 
the salvation of the whole race, and every individual of the 
race, from sin and its consequences. But w^ho will commu- 
nicate the knowledge of this gracious proviso to the sinner ? 
By the law of sin and death, under which the sinner acts, and 
tries to shield himself and find life and happiness, the light of 
truth is excluded from his moral susceptibilities. Should 
God, who is light, and in whom is no darkness at all, even a 
consuming fire to the wicked, in the person of the Father, 
present himself to the apprehension of the sinner, he would 
be destroyed in a moment by the brightness of his presence 
and the glory of his power. For the everlasting destruction 
of the damned is from his presence and the glory of his power. 
1 Thess. i. 9. Or should he withhold from any human trans- 
gressor the influences of his Spirit, the law would reach his 



THE AUTIIOKSllIP OF THE CHANGE. 213 

soul immediately, by the death of tlie body, and commence 
his everlasting punishment. 

And yet this terrible Law, this light of eternal truth, this 
consuming fire to the wicked, is the only power, influence, 
cause or causality in the universe, external to the agent, for 
the production of right moral action, or any moral change for 
the better. It includes the entire moral omnipotence of the 
Deity. God produces right moral change in agents finite 
only by the motive influence of truth. This light of truth 
must, therefore, be brought into contact with the moral en- 
dowments of the sinner, or he must perish under the law of 
sin and death. For "how shall they believe in him of whom 
they have not heard ?" Rom. x. 14. But how and by whom 
shall this saving contact be efiected ? Infinite wisdom is al- 
ways competent to any possible emergency in the finite. God 
embodies his moral omnipotence, that is, his will, his perfect 
law, his benevolent and gracious provisions, designs and pur- 
poses, in human language ; and in the third person of the 
Godhead begins his work of renovating grace by communi- 
cating of this will thus revealed to the moral perception of 
tke sinner, through his viciated animal organs of sensation, in 
s^cich manner and measure that he may be able to receive, to 
feel, and to improve the motive influence of the same. This 
will of God thus revealed, thus modified by reflection from 
the cross of Calvary, and thus brought into contact with the 
carnal mind, is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. 
By this law the sinner is awakened, convicted, and melted 
into penitence. " For I was alive without the law once : but 
when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." 
Rom. vii. 9. By the motive influence of this same law of 
light and truth, the humbled penitent is quickened, persuaded 
or induced, to put forth a new, a generic or controlling act 
of volition, or, in other words, to resolve unconditionally and 
without reserve that he will henceforth cease to do evil, and 
learn to do well ; that he will cast away from him all his 
transgressions, and make him a new heart and a new spirit 
(that is, a new character) ; or that he will submit to the per- 
fect law of the Lord, and henceforth endeavor to serve God 



214 THE AUTIIORSIIir OF THE CIIAXGE. 

with all his ability. Thus the change of regeneration, or the 
beginning of that entire change of moral character which con- 
stitutes the salvation of a sinner, is effected. " For the law 
of the Sj^irit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from 
the law of sin and death." Rom. viii. 2. 

Whatever variety of antecedent or accompanying circum 
stances may be associated with, or whatever emotions, desires, 
or affections may be felt in the process, or whatever physical 
agencies or instrumentalities may be employed, or in whatever 
variety of language the subject may describe the change, or 
though he may have made no record of memory at the time, 
and may, therefore, be unable to tell anything about it ; still 
the commencement of the change or regeneration must con- 
sist in a generic volition of the subject, or in an entire change 
of the action of his will in relation to the law of God. For 
the whole change, from beginning to end, is a change of moral 
character, and nothing else. And all moral character, good 
and bad, sin and holiness, lies in the relations of the volitions 
of the subject to the law of God. If his volitions are con- 
formity to the law, they are right, good, holy, and his moral 
character is good ; he is a holy man. If his volitions are op- 
position to the law, they are wrong, evil, sin, and his moral 
character bad ; he is a sinful man. The change must, there- 
fore, commence in a right voluntary act of the will. It must 
be a generic volition ; that is, it must include an unreserved, 
unconditional resolve, that the whole genus and course of his 
voluntary conduct henceforth, shall be conformity to the law 
of God. Till this generic purpose of the soul is formed, no 
saving change is commenced. The sinner is yet unregene- 
rate. " Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is 
none of his." Rom. viii. 9. 

The only motive antecedent or causative influence, exterior 
to the subject, that can sustain causal relations to this change, 
is the moral omnipotence of Jehovah, or the word of truth, 
or the perfect law of the Lord converting the soul, or the 
gospel of Christ, or in other Avords, the personal influence of 
the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Godhead, which is 
nothing else or different fi'om tlie will of God, revealed to us 



THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE CHANGE. 215 

in the Bible for our salvation. And each of these causalities, 
and all of them together, is nothing else but the eternal, om- 
nipresent, and unchangeable God, the Father of light, putting 
forth, exercising, and employing his infinite wisdom, power, 
and goodness in saving sinful men. This he began to do on 
the very day that sin entered into this world, and has never 
ceased a moment to employ these infinite perfections in this 
benevolent enterprise ; and I hope and believe never will till 
the last sinner that infinite Avisdom, power, and goodness can 
save, has attained to the adoption, to wit, the redemption of 
his body. 

The Subject of the Change not Passive, 

Though the change, whenever it takes place, is the effect of 
divine agency, yet the subject is not passive, either in relation 
to the change or at the time of the change. As the change is a 
change of moral character, and as all moral character consists in ' 
the relation of the voluntary action of the subject to the law of 
the Lord, it is impossible that any such change should take 
j)lace while the subject remains passive. Because there is no 
subject of moral change, but the voluntary action of the agent 
which constitutes his character. But the divine agent never 
interferes, or has anything to do with the voluntary action of 
the human agent, who is the subject of regeneration. His 
voluntary actions are all his own. He is the sole author of 
them. His own personal agency is the only cause of them. 
He only is accountable for them. It, therefore, becomes neces- 
sary, in the ultimate analysis of this subject, to make a dis- 
tinction between the change of regeneration, and the subse- 
quent change of moral character. The first is exclusively the 
work of God. The sole cause of it is the motive influence of 
the light of truth, which is the direct and immediate action 
of the will of God on the soul. " God is light, and in him is 
no darkness at all." 1 Jno. i. 5. " In thy light shall we see 
light." Ps. xxxvi. 9. '' For God, who commanded the Hght 
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give 
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face 
of Jesus Christ." — 2 Cor. iv. 6. The second is exclusively the 



216 THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE CHANGE. 

work of man, the subject of regeneration. " Repent ye, for 
the kmgdom of heaven is at hand." Matt. iii. 2. "Repent 
and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity 
shall not be your ruin. And make you a new heart and a 
new spirit." Ezek. xviii. 30, 31. "Turn ye, turn ye, from 
your evil ways: for why will ye die?" Ezek. xxxiii. 11. 
" Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth, 
through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren." 1 
Pet. i. 22, compared etc. 

The last voluntary act of the subject, antecedent to regen- 
eration, must have been put forth under the law of sin and 
death, or at least it was not obedience to the law of God, and 
was therefore not right, not holy. It might have been an 
emotion of sorrow for sin, as a cause of pain. It might have 
been a volition of the mind, or resolution to amend his con- 
duct, in order to escape punishment, or to secure some tem- 
poral selfish interest. Or, it might have been an emotion of 
delight or complacency in contemplating the beauty, excel- 
lence, or utility of moral rectitude. But whatever it might 
have been, it was wrong in some way. There was some self- 
ish reserve about it ; or it was associated Avith some wicked 
purpose of the will not yet renounced, or with some vicious 
habits not condemned. Or, it was put forth or felt, subject to 
the controlling influence of some antecedent generic volition 
of the will, not yet yielded to the influence of truth. It was, 
therefore, in direct opposition to the motive influence of the 
light of truth, which God the Spirit is urging upon the sinner, 
to induce or persuade him to turn and put forth that generic 
act of the will, which commences the radical change of his 
moral character. The agency of God the Spirit and of man 
the subject of regeneration, are perfectly distinct from eacli 
other, and in reference to this change are perfectly opposed 
to each other ; and the human agency never concurs with the 
divine, in efiecting the change, till after the change is wrought. 
The human agent concurs with the divine agent, that is, sub- 
mits to his authority and obeys his will, in putting forth a 
new and generic act of will, extending in purpose, to his 
whole future course of action, without exception or limitation. 



THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE CHANGE. 217 

The human agent has perfect ability to put forth this right 
moral act of will, and always had since he commenced moral 
agency, and always must have. Tliis ability is essential to his 
existence ; without it he would not exist at all as a subject of 
moral government. The divine agency ceases or ends, in re- 
lation to this change, the moment this change is secured or 
effected. But it never ceases to be put forth, continuously in 
all places, at all times and in relation to all creatures, who have 
moral susceptibilities or endowments. " God is light, and in 
him is no darkness at all." But God is everywhere present. 
And his law is where he is, for his laAV is his will, his infinite 
light of truth, pervading all space and time, and shining on all 
creatures. With respect to this sinning human agent, since 
his first transgression, it has been weak through the flesh, not 
able to effect this moral renovation, because the sinning human 
subject is in the flesh, under the law of sin and death, and has 
been able through the motive influences of the viciated in- 
stincts, appetites and passions of the flesh, and contracted 
vicious habits, to exclude the light from his mind, or resist it, 
whenever it reached his conscience. There is, therefore, no 
confounding of the divine and human agency in this change. 
The change, which the divine Agent produces, is as exclusively 
his, as the original creation of the heaven and the earth, and 
as far beyond all human agency or ability, as extra to the sub- 
ject. And the first right voluntary act of the subject, in 
which the change of character commences, is as exclusively 
the act of the human agents as any of his previous sinful acts, 
and as impossible for God to have any agency in producing it 
as it is for God to lie ; though the moral quality of that act was a 
consequence in the second degree, or sequence, of the change 
Avhich God had wrought in the human agent. The merit of 
that act was a consequence of God's agency in the same man- 
ner and degree that Cain's sin was a consequence of Adam's 
agency in eating the forbidden fruit. There was no causal 
relation in either case, because, in both cases, another ad- 
equate, free and responsible cause intervened. For every 
moral agent is an adequate, a free, an original and efficient 
cause in himself, for any moral change or act, within the 
. 10 



218 THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE CHANGE. 

sphere of his duty and obligation. And that makes him an 
accountable agent and subject of moral government. Herein 
the relation of cause and effect in the moral sphere differs to- 
tally from that relation in the physical sphere. In the physical 
sphere all changes, and all causes of change, consist in loco- 
motion, and nothing else. Hence, the most remote antecedent 
of any chain of sequences, is a cause of the ultimate change, 
as truly as the proximate cause, only at a more remote dis- 
tance. But when a moral agent acts, he is the sole cause of 
the change produced as far as its moral quality is concerned. 
Because he is perfectly free to give it what moral character 
lie will, and actually does give it moral character, and is solely 
accountable for it. There is nothing special or supernatural in 
relation to the agency or influence of God in the production of 
this change of regeneration. The putting forth of this influ- 
ence or power is not a favor or distinction which he con- 
fers on a few, or on a select number, few or many, and with- 
holds from the rest, or which he bestows at one time or place, 
and not at another and at all others. The power or influence 
which the Holy Ghost puts forth to regenerate a soul, is no- 
thing more, and nothing else, but the natural, moral omnipo- 
tence of '' The Father of lights, in whom is no variableness, 
neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us, with 
the word of truth. But specialty and supernaturalness both 
necessarily imply variableness and change. Therefore, all 
specialty and supernaturalness that pertain to the whole con- 
cern of salvation, lie in the effects and results among sinful 
subjects. And the cause must be sought in the past sins or 
present character and condition of the subjects. The un- 
changeable God was present when Eve ate the forbidden 
fruit. His power unto salvation was then put forth. The 
Holy Ghost was then present with all his converting influ- 
ences, and regenerated the human offenders. The perfect law 
of the Lord, which converts the soul, was then revealed, with 
all its remedial provisions of grace, through an atoning Medi- 
ator. And not an individual of the human race has ever sin- 
ned and died impenitent without knowing, feeling, and resist- 
ing this power of God, and this influence of the Holy Ghost, 



THE AUTIIOESIIIP OF TUE CHANGE. 219 

Avhicli converts the soul. Because such an event is a moral 
impossibility ; it involves a contradiction in itself, and a flat 
contradiction of God in the Bible. 

The chans^e of reo'eneration or conversion in several rela- 
tions is unique. There is nothing exactly like it, as far as we 
know, in all the phenomena of the universe beside. It is a 
radical and universal change in the voluntary actions of a 
moral agent, in relation to the perfect law of the Lord, which 
extends to every relation that involves moral obligation. The 
subject always acts with perfect freedom, and perfect ability, 
to do just as he chooses ; that is to concur with and obey 
either class of motives, that may be present at the time, the 
right or the wrong. The change is always in direct opposition 
to the previous volition, purposes and voluntary habits of the 
subject. And yet the change must be effected without the 
least violation of his freedom of \\dll at the time. He must be 
persuaded freely to cease his oj^position of will, and freely to 
concur with the motive influences of truth, which tend to the 
saving change. I knoAV that awakened, anxious sinners are 
often called seekers, and are exhorted to seek conversion, to 
pray for conversion, and to wait upon God for a change of 
heart, etc. But the change of regeneration is the farthest 
thing in the universe, from all the conceptions, desires and 
wishes of the unconverted sinner. Awakened sinners may, 
indeed, be called seekers with the utmost propriety. But 
they are always seekers of deliverance from the consequences 
of sin, the torments of a guilty conscience, and the terrors of 
the wrath to come, and not from sin itself. And they can 
never be too anxious in seeking, nor too importunate in pray- 
ing, nor too submissive and self-abased in waiting upon God, 
nor too persevering in the strife. Xay, they should be de- 
termined never to cease striving, but to attain deliverance, 
or die in the strife. For such is their position, and such the 
nature of the change required, as to exclude all flnite agency 
and physical causation, except their own moral agency, and 
that is still under the law of sin and death, and therefore can 
not bear the relation of causal antecedent to this saving 
change. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the 



220 THE AUTHOUSHir OF THE CIIAXGE. 

only immediate and invariable antecedent to this moral change 
for the better. Hence, the command and exhortation to fol- 
low the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, and to mind the things 
of the Spirit. '' The last Adam was made a quickening spirit." 
1 Cor. XV. 45. " For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth 
life." 2 Cor. iii. 6. 

But although the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the third person 
of the Godhead, is the author, and his motive influence the 
sole cause of the saving change of regeneration and sanctiii- 
cation, still the renovated moral character, which is the result, 
and in which the salvation of the subject consists, is entirely 
the work of the human agent. He is the sole author of it all. 
Every emotion, volition, or action, which goes to constitute 
that renovated moral character, are the results of his agency 
alone. He himself is the only, the immediate, and the invari- 
able antecedent and sole cause of all. The divine agency, the 
power of God unto salvation, the sanctifying and saving in- 
fluences of the Holy Ghost, end, are exhausted, and cease in 
the moral endowments or susceptibilities of the sinning sub- 
ject All right emotions, volitions, and actions that follow 
are exclusively of the human agency of the converted sinner. 
And all the merit of them is his personal merit ; and the defi- 
ciency of them is his demerit. He is accountable for all. All 
goes into the deeds done in the body, which will measure and 
determine his future destiny. It is, therefore, of the greatest 
importance that every person, and especially every regenerate 
believer, should know, remember, and feel the motive influ- 
ence of this truth at all times. For though we are God's 
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which 
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them, yet 
God's working is never the cause of a single good work, or a 
single step in the right course to heaven. But we are com- 
manded to " Work out your own salvation with fear and trem- 
bling ; " and it is added, by way of motive influence, to per- 
suade and excite us, '' for it is God which worketh in you, 
both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Phil. ii. 12, 13. 
God, indeed, works in us, to will and to do ; but he works 
only with the motive influence of truth. And his omnipo- 



THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE CHANGE. 221 

tence in the moral spliere, extends no further than to keep al- 
ways paramount motive influence to right moral action, before 
the mind and conscience of every subject of his government. 
The believer has all the ability that any saint in glory ever had 
to perform his whole duty, and must work out his own salva- 
tion or never be saved. His own free will must give moral 
quality to every emotion and action, that goes to constitute 
his meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light. Though 
the right emotions of the believer are, with truth and pro- 
priety, called the fruit of the Spirit, it is never to be forgotten 
that the believer is the sole author and proximate cause of the 
whole, as truly as before conversion he was the author and 
cause of his own sins. 

If the regenerated person again freely and voluntarily trans- 
gresses the law of God, he is again under the law of sin and 
death, and the same process must be rencAved. The law of 
the Spirit of Life, the third person of the Godhead, must 
again reach his moral susceptibilities, with the motive influ- 
ences of the higher law, and persuade him to renew that gene- 
ric volition or resolve, which began the formation of his new 
and right moral character. And through the whole progress 
of the believer's sanctification, he is excited, induced, and per- 
suaded to all right emotion and action, by the same divine 
motive influence of the light of truth, which is always the 
same in all places and at all times, and which always produces 
the same right and saving efiect, except when evaded or re- 
sisted by actual trangression, or the force of vicious habits 
voluntarily contracted and indulged under the law of sin and 
death. The only difference in the subsequent process of this 
moral renovation, is that it is not wholly new to the converted 
sinner. It has become a part of his past experience. He has' 
commenced the formation of habits of right thought and right 
action. When his conscience begins to reprove and convict 
him of recently contracted sin and guilt, he knows what the 
needed remedy is, where it is to be found, and what he must 
do to obtain relief. He must turn his eyes again to the God 
of truth, who is light, and in whom is no darkness, must fall 
on his knees, confess his faults, and renew the generic resolve 



222 THE IXSTKUMEXT. 

with which he began the reformation. Every renewal of a 
right purpose or a right act is a victory won ; because the en- 
emy is again foiled, the right habit is strengthened, and the 
knowledge and skill in the use of the right weapon increased. 
And thus the law of sin and the force of evil habits is contin- 
ually awakened. But the conflict must, in every case, con- 
tinue as long as the subject continues in the flesh. For 
the law of sin is there, with all its false and delusive mo- 
tive influences, exciting, enticing, and persuading to moral 
evil. It cannot he ejected but by the dissolution of the body. 
The believer can not escape its motive influence till he is sepe- 
rated from depraved mortal flesh. He has perfect ability to 
resist and overcome with the sword of the Spirit. But the 
ultimate victory and final triumph of the saved sinner, will be 
when he attains to the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the 
body. And the true believer only, who is conscious of walk- 
ing, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, may now rejoice in hope 
of this final victory. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE INSTRUMENT, CAUSE, OR INFLUENCE THAT PRODUCES 

THE CHANGE. 

Though I have, in the preceding chapters, affirmed that 
moral suasion, or the motive influence of the light of truth, is 
the sole cause of the change of regeneration and entire moral 
renovation, and have identified the cause with the author of 
the change, yet I deem it important to mark the distinction, 
and further illustrate this important truth. The identification 
which I have made is a personal identification, plainly taught 
in the Bible. " By the which will we are sanctified through 
the ofiering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all." Heb. 
X. 10, compared with Rom. viii. 3, 4. — "For what the law 
could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God send- 



THE INSTRUMEXT. 223 

ing his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, con- 
demned sin in tlie flesh : That the righteousness of the law 
might be fuliilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after 
the Spirit." This sword of the Spirit, Avhich is the word of 
God, which is identical with the will of God embodied in hu- 
man language, and also identical with the law of the Lord, 
which is perfect, converting the soul, and with the gospel of 
Christ, the power of God unto salvation, is the only instru- 
ment, cause, or influence which God, the Almighty Spirit, the 
third person of the Godhead, ever uses, employs, or puts forth 
to free the sinner from the law of sin and death, and save him 
from all its malignant influences and consequents. This law 
of the Lord, which is the light of eternal truth, includes all 
the means, power, influence, or causality in the universe, 
which is applicable for the production of right moral eflect. 
God has no other means, causality, or power, whereby to ac- 
complish any moral purpose among his creatures, or to pro- 
duce in man any right moral purpose or change for the better 
that we know of or can conceive of, than this perfect law, 
which converts the soul. I^o man was ever yet conscious 
of any other influence exciting him to right emotion, volition, 
or action. Falsehood always excites or moves the subject to 
wrong or sinful volition and action, as it did in the case of 
Eve. These two, truth and falsehood, are the only moral in- 
fluences of the universe. When, therefore, Jesus Christ, to 
set us an example, prayed the Almighty Father to sanctify 
all his redeemed followers, he said, '' Sanctify them through 
thy truth, thy w^ord is truth." Jno. xvii. 17. And the old 
serpent, when he invaded the moral kingdom of God, had 
only the other alternative, to arm himself with falsehood. 
These words of the Saviour of sinners himself, uttered with 
the most solemn and awful crisis of the work of redemption 
immediately before him, addressed to the Omnipotent, the 
Author of all power, if they have any meaning at all, do con- 
nect, in the intimate relation of cause and eflect, the word of 
God and the entire moral renovation of all the redeemed, and 
identify this cause with the person of the Sanctifler, the Au- 
thor of the change. ISTow, we may defy all the professors of 



224 THE INSTKUMEXT. 

Biblical criticism on tlie earth, to show any other or different 
meaning of these words, without stultifying the Saviour, and 
converting his language into nonsense. And whenever the 
instrument, cause, or means of this saving change is mentioned 
or alluded to in the Bible, nothing but moral suasion, or the 
motive influence of the light of truth can be made out of it, 
or found in that relation. 

When the Apostle Paul aflirms — Rom. i. 16 — that the gospel 
of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, the plain, obvious 
meaning of his aflirmation is, that the motive influence of the 
truth which he taught, was the sole cause of the salvation of all 
believers. So he explains it himself '' For therein is the 
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith : as it is 
written. The just shall live by faith." He repeats the same 
truth to the Corinthians. '' For the preaching of the cross is 
to them that perish foolishness ; but unto us, which are saved, 
it is the power of God." 1 Cor. i. 18. And again he reite- 
rates the same important fact, chapter xv. 1, 2. — "Moreover, 
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto 
you, which also ye received and wherein ye stand ; by which 
also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto 
you, imless ye have believed in vain." Paul told the Elders 
of the church at Ephesus, that he had not shunned to declare 
to his hearers all the counsel of God. And certainly no 
preacher, before or since him, ever presented the jDcrfect mir- 
ror of God's law more distinctly, plainly, and fully before men 
than he did. But the gospel of Christ, which he preached is 
the power of God unto salvation, — the very thing by which 
his hearers were saved, and the only thing intervening be- 
tween God the Saviour and the salvation, as seen in the reno- 
vated character of the converted man. ^N'ay, this gospel of 
Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation, he perfectly 
identified with the will of God, embodied in human language 
and recorded in the Bible, Heb. x. 10. — " By the which will 
we are sanctified," etc. And this sanctifying, saving influence 
it derives by being reflected from the cross of Calvary. Rom. 
viii. 2-4. Again the Apostle aflirms, Heb. iv. 12, "For the 
Avord of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any 



THE IXSTKUMENT. 22o 

two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of 
soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a dis- 
cerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." If this 
lansfuaire does not ascribe to the Avord of God infinite moral 
power or efficiency, I know not what language can. The ef- 
fects here ascribed to the word are certainly divine preroga- 
tives, pertaining exclusively to the infinite Spirit. But the 
word of God produces these effects. Can it not regenerate 
the sinner ? Does it not convert the soul ? Is it not the 
very power of God that saves ? 

The Apostle James testifies of God, the Father of lights, 
" Of his own will begat he us, with the word of truth, that 
we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures." And im- 
mediately after, in the same connection, affirms respecting this 
word of truth, "Which is able to save your souls." The 
power or ability to save is here perfectly identified with the 
word of truth, the word of God, or his revealed will in human 
language. The Saviour himself makes the same identification 
in Jno. XV. 13:" INTow ye are clean through the word which 
I have spoken unto you." And all his apostles do the same, 
not only in the passages already quoted, but in many more, 
too numerous to be quoted in a short compass. See Eph. v. 
26 ; Acts XV. 9 ; 2 Tim. iii. 15 ; Acts xiii. 26 ; 1 Pet. i. 22. 

I thus multiply quotations because I wish to state the testi- 
mony of the Bible on this subject fully and plainly ; in simple 
language which can not be misunderstood by any person of 
common sense who wishes to know and is willing to read and 
think on the subject. This I desire, because I believe there 
is in the minds of very many persons in this Christian land, 
under the light of the gospel, including professors of rehgion, 
preachers of the gospel, and even not a few professors and 
teachers of theology, a great deal of error, confusion of 
thought and mysticism, in relation to this subject ; a subject 
the most important, the most practical and most necessary to 
be understood, of all subjects in this world. And I believe it 
is a subject most plainly revealed, and capable of being under- 
stood by all who are interested. But a great part of the pub- 
lic teaching on this subject I regard as " darkening counsel, 
10* 



22G THE INSTRUMEXT. 

by words without knowledge," and furnishing sinners a valid 
excuse for not trying to do any thing to attain their own 
moral renovation. The general course of teaching on this 
subject, which we hear from the pulpit and read in books, 
represents the conversion of. the sinner as some mysterious 
change of human nature, by infusing into it some substance, 
quality or attribute, which has never been found in it before 
since the fall. This change, or addition to the nature of the 
subject, is effected only by the supernatural power of God. 
Omnipotence being a natural attribute of Deity, the influence 
or causality that produces this change must be somewhat 
more than mere omnipotence. "We are not told exactly what 
that power is which is supernatural to the omnipotent agent, 
but the necessity of it, for the conversion or recovery of the 
sinner, w^e hear reiterated again and again, in various forms, 
by different sects. The natural inference is, that all finite 
agency and instrumentality are necessarily excluded. The 
language generally used to express the cause of the regenera- 
tion of the sinner is, that it is wrought by the special influ- 
ence of the Holy Ghost, or by the supernatural power of God. 
But sometimes it is affirmed that nothing but the irresistible 
power of God can effect the change. At the same time we 
are told that the word of God is totally inefficient, and can 
have no influence at all on the sinner, to produce the change, 
till his nature is changed by this special divine power. Such 
language and such affirmations generally convey to the mind 
of the unlettered hearer or reader the idea that the only cause 
of the change is some mysterious, inconceivable, incompre- 
hensible, but tremendous effort of physical power, such as we 
may suppose w^as put forth when the matter of this world was 
created out of nothing ; and, therefore, the subject can have 
no manner of agency about it, either helping or hindering it. 
Perhaps the learned and venerable teacher himself makes the 
necessary inference, and affirms the total inability of the sinner 
for any right emotion, volition or action. And under such 
tuition from grave and learned divines and pious parents, in 
venerable creeds and catechisms, and elegant volumes by 
CD's, the sinner generally feels very unconcerned and per- 



THE IXSTRUMEXT. 227 

fectly innocent in relation to any moral change necessary in 
his case. If the premises be true, if it be a foct that he labors 
under any inability to repent, believe, to cease to do evil and 
learn to do well, till some act of supernatural, divine power 
changes his nature or gives him new power or ability, his 
excuse is a good one, and he Avill be able to justify himself, 
for aught I can see, before any righteous tribunal in the uni- 
verse. 

But it is not fact that he labors under the least inability, 
moral or physical. This whole representation of the case is 
erroneous, false, and contradictory to the word of God and 
common sense. Xo physical power is ever put forth in the 
case. IN'o special, or supernatural, or mysterious, or incom- 
prehensible, or irresistible powder, influence or agency, is ever 
used, or can be used in the case, or bear any causal relation to 
the regeneration or moral renovation of a sinner, or to any 
moral change whatever. But the change under consideration 
here is a jDurely moral change throughout. The subject is a 
moral agent. The thing to be changed is his moral charac- 
ter : consisting in the moral relation which his voluntary ac- 
tion, that is, his moral conduct, sustains to the moral law of 
the universe. The author of the change is the moral Sove- 
reign of the universe. The final results to be attained are all 
moral and spiritual, to be enjoyed principally in the future 
spirit world. The whole subject pertains exclusively to the 
administration of God's moral government over the human 
race, and, therefore, lies entirely within the moral sphere, and 
not in the physical. To talk about physical, supernatural, 
special or irresistible power, influence or agency, in relation 
to such a change, is preposterous. No influence, power or 
agency can have any relation to such an event, but the moral 
influence with whicb God governs his moral kingdom ; and 
that is the motive influence of truth only. In its causal rela- 
tion to change of character it is properly called moral suasion. 
And, as far as the character and interests of human agents 
may be afiected during the present probation, this truth is 
recorded in the Bible, and properly called the higher law. 

It may not be improper, but may perhaps be useful to some 



228 THE IXSTKUMENT. 

reader, to mention some of the causes of the errors and absurd 
mysticisms which have wrapt up this subject in profound ob- 
scurity for ages. The first I would mention is the ignoring, 
forgetting or disregarding, the distinction between things 
physical and things moral, or between the relation of cause 
and effect, in the physical and moral spheres. This distinc- 
tion was described in the preceding essay on the law of sin 
and death. I would only here observe that this is a distinc- 
tion which is never ignored or disregarded through ignor- 
ance ; because God has taught every moral intelligent on the 
earth to know the nature, necessity, and use of this distinction 
from the earliest dawn of intellect. The knoAvledge is ac- 
quired by direct intuition, on the first occasion that occurs for 
the use of it. Your child of seven or five years old under- 
stands the nature, necessity, and use of this distinction, as 
well as the learned divine or philosopher who fills a pro- 
fessor's chair in the seminary or university. If he wishes you 
to change the generic purpose of your will, on any subject 
whatever, if it is only to give a cent, an orange, a new book 
or a new garment, he presents to your intellectual perception 
some truth or consideration which he thinks may have motive 
influence to persuade you to change your purpose. If he 
should frequently mistake and seek to produce the moral 
change by physical force, would you not soon be seen con- 
sulting the physician, or mental physiologist, to know whether 
your child was really becoming an idiot ? But some very 
learned men either forget or mistake, and carry the axioms 
of physical causality into the moral sphere, and thus fall into 
great errors and gross contradiction. For example, "The 
antecedent and consequent are always of the same nature or 
quality," is an axiom in the physical sphere, but not in the 
moral. When, therefore, the learned theologian infers from 
the fact that this man has committed sin, therefore he was a 
sinner before he committed sin, he commits an error, and 
contradicts all the intuitions of common sense, and the whole 
testimony of the word of God on that subject. 

Another source of error, deception, and mysticism, is the 
habit of speaking and reasoning about the mere relations of 



THE IXSTRUMENT. 229 

things, and the qualities and circumstances of relations, as 
though they were real substantive existences in themselves. 
Hence we have the two varieties of moral character, the good 
and bad, holiness and sin, which consist exclusively of the re- 
lations, or rather of the qualities of the relations, which the 
voluntary actions of moral agents sustain to the law of God, 
converted into substantive existences, endoAved w^th the essen- 
tial attributes of real existences, transferable from one subject 
to another, transmissible from one generation to another, cre- 
ated by proxy or representation, thousands of years before 
the principals or constituents came into existence. The right- 
eousness and true hohness which constituted the perfect char- 
acter of Adam antecedent to the fall, we are told, were pro- 
duced by the direct agency of God in the creative act, by 
which man was brought into existence and constituted an es- 
sential part of his being. And again, that all the sin, which 
constitutes the total moral depravity of all the human race, 
was brought into existence by the single act of Adam in eat- 
ing the forbidden fruit ; and is distributed to each individual 
of the race, even to the innocent babes, making them guilty, 
and deserving of a punishment which "is of all evils the es- 
sence and the sum." — (Hodge, Rom. v. 13, 14.) Of course, in- 
vohdng everlasting punishment. Also, all the righteousness 
which constitutes the perfect character of the redeemed, and 
meetens them for heaven, is often represented as a substantive 
existence, created by divine agency, and transferred and dis- 
tributed to individuals, like bills of exchange, or rations to an 
army. 

The relation of antecedent and consequent, or of cause and 
effect, is often represented as a real substance possessed by the 
antecedent previous to the existence of the consequent, and 
therefore something existing separate from, or independently 
of both cause and effect. Hence the generic term power, 
which means nothing but this relation in the abstract, is often 
used in a very vague manner, without any definite meaning, 
or as though it meant something entirely different from this 
relation. Thus it has been often used, when the idea intended 
to be expressed was the ability of a particular agent to put 



230 THE INSTRUMENT. 

himself into the relation of antecedent to a certain vohmtary 
act, change, or consequent. One person, on the authority of 
antiquity, the church, or the General Assembly, and under the 
conventional influence of a creed, a denommational connection, 
or other social relations, affirms that a sinning unregenerate 
human agent is totally destitute of power or ability to repent, 
believe, or obey any requirement of the perfect law of the 
Lord. Another person, taught by the intuitions of that com- 
mon sense with which God has endowed him, affirms that ev- 
ery moral agent has necessarily all power and ability, to ful- 
fil all obligation and perform all duty, which Law, or Omnip- 
otence, or divine Sovereignty can impose. Here is a contra- 
diction arising out of this vague confounding of the meaning 
of two generic terms, signifying nothing but relations, viz., 
power and ability. Neither of these affirmations is true, in 
the vague, indefinite manner that I have expressed them. 
But both are or may be perfectly true, if expressed in the def- 
inite and proper terms, without confounding words of differ- 
ent and opposite meaning in describing the same thing. A 
sinful human agent may sustain no causal relation to any right 
moral action, having never yet performed any such action un- 
der motive influence of law. And the same agent, and every 
moral agent, must necessarily possess, at all times, the ability 
to perform all duty and fulfil all obligation. Because no law, 
authority, or sovereignty can impose obligations in any case, 
beyond the present ability of the subject to perform. Where 
ability is wanting obligation can not attach. But this unmean- 
ing and foolish contradiction, thus originated, has produced 
a controversy to convulse the church for ages, and already to 
consume more time, waste more labor, thought and effort, and 
sacrifice more lives than sufficient to put a Bible in every hu- 
man habitation on earth, and teach every human agent to read 
the same. 

Several other generic terms, expressive of pure relations, 
such as grace, righteousness, depravity, etc., are used in such 
a manner and in such connections, as to carry to the mind of 
the unlearned hearer or reader, the idea of a substance exist- 
ing independently of the subjects, which sustain these rela- 



THE IXSTRUMENT. 231 

tions. Thus the grace of God to men is often so described, 
and such things predicated of it, as to give the conception of 
a real substance, imponderable, but actually existing in some 
form, material or immaterial, and actually conveyed from the 
divine person to the regenerate human person, making a real 
addition to his nature and essential endowments ; without 
which the unregenerate person is totally destitute of ability to 
repent, believe, love God, or do anything morally right. A 
very gross absurdity ; a profound mysticism. 

Another prolific source of error, absurdity, and mysticism 
is the making of distinctions in things which are identical, or 
in transferring distinctions belonging to one relation to other 
relations or substances, where unity and identity are alone 
predicable. Thus, when the three distinctions of personality 
in the Godhead, which belong exclusively to the various rela- 
tions which God sustains to fallen men, are transferred to his 
mode of existence, they involve the absurdity, the contradic- 
tion and profound mysticism, of three existing in one, and of 
one being in three, and a whole category of like mysticisms. 
And all the mysticisms of super-omnipotence, special influ- 
ences of the Spirit, total inability and the like, have grown 
out of these and like vague, indefinite, and improper uses of 
language, and confounding distinctions, or using them where 
there is no diiference. 

But we never find the phrases, special influence, supernatu- 
ral influence, irresistible influence ; or supernatural power, 
special power, or irresistible power ; or sf)ecial, supernatural, 
or irresistible agency, or any other phrases implying or involv- 
ing change in the Supreme Being, in the Bible, or used by 
an insjDired teacher. All such phrases are the invention of 
human dogmatizers, to express their own false assumptions, 
which can not be expressed in the language of the Bible or 
of common sense. If these phrases convey any ideas or con- 
ceptions to the minds of common hearers or readers, they 
must be erroneous or false conceptions, contradicting the uni- 
form testimony of the Bible, and totally incongruous with the 
moral nature of the whole subject. I would here ask the 
common sense reader, what he understands by the phrase, 



232 THE INSTRUMENT. 

' Supernatural power of God ' ? How much greater is it than 
God's natural omnipotence ? Wherein does it differ, either in 
adaptation or efficiency, from mere omnipotence ? Or what 
is the specific difference in the operation, between the super- 
natural influences of the Holy Ghost, and the motive influ- 
ences of the light of truth ? The Bible and common sense 
perfectly identify the influence of the Holy Ghost, and the 
motive influence of the word of truth. Compare Rom. i. 16, 
with James i. 18. 

But in opposition to these incongruities and absurdities, 
I have ventured to affirm that the whole efficiency, or causal- 
ity, or influence, which produces the moral change of regene- 
ration and the entire moral renovation of the redeemed siftner, 
is found alone in that system of truth which is revealed to us 
in the Bible, and which constitutes the perfect law of the 
Lord. This I believe to be the plain, common sense, and true 
meaning of the language of our Saviour and his Apostles al- 
ready quoted ; and the very meaning which they intended to 
convey to their hearers when they ascribed the regeneration, 
the sanctification and salvation of believers to the word of 
truth, to the gospel of Christ, and to the will of God. I be- 
lieve this is the true meaning of the Psalmist, when he affirms 
" The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." And 
that he intended to assert the fact, that the law of the Lord 
was the immediate and invariable antecedent, the only efficient 
cause of the conversion of the soul. The fact that the law 
converts the soul is affirmed as the evidence or illustration of 
its absolute perfection. But if it has no efficiency in itself to 
produce this effect, David certainly offered a very stupid illus- 
tration for an inspired poet. But the Psalmist affirms that 
the law is actually doing what the mystifiers ascribe to the 
supernatural power of God. If it is not in itself adequate to 
the conversion of the soul, for what conceivable purpose was 
it ever revealed in the language of fallen man ? 

But with respect to the efficiency of the word of God, to 
produce moral changes in the character of fallen men, we have 
the direct and positive testimony of the holy Spirit, the Sanc- 
tifier and Author of regeneration himself, in plain unequivocal 



THE INSTRUMEXT. 233 

language. He assures us that it is able to save our souls. Jas. i. 
21. — That it is able to make us wise unto salvation. 2 Tim. iii. 
15. — That it is the very seed or moral influence by which we 
are born again. The seed, which God puts in our minds, to 
reproduce right aflfections, volitions and actions. Not a cor- 
ruptible seed, or physical influence, but an incorruptible, that 
is a moral influence, which liveth and abideth for ever. " Being 
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." "And 
this is the word, which by the gospel is preached unto you." 
1 Pet. i. 23-25. It is also called the sword of the Spirit ; that 
sharp tAVO-edged sword, that goeth out of the mouth of Him, 
who hath the keys of hell and death. It is also represented 
as the infinite, exhaustless armory of moral and spiritual weap- 
ons, whence the Captain of salvation himself, and the innu- 
merable host of his redeemed soldiery are equipped for the 
conflict, with the powers of darkness : " weapons that are 
mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strong holds ; 
casting down imaginations, and every high thing, that exalt- 
eth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into 
captivity, every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Cor. 
X. 4, 5. 

Does any person object to this view of the subject, and ac- 
cuse me of detracting from the honor of God the Holy Ghost, 
by ascribing his peculiar and gracious work to the moral influ- 
ence of his word ? In answer to such objector, I ask, who is 
this Holy Ghost, the Author of regeneration and Sanctifier of 
believers ? Is he a different agent, from that infinite and al- 
mighty Spirit, w^ho spake the world into existence, and gave 
laws to all the works of his hands ? Whose gospel was it 
w^hich Paul called the power of God unto salvation ? And 
by what Agent was he, and the other writers of the Bible, 
inspired and directed ? I know of but one God, one infinite 
Being, one divine Agent, the Creator, the Saviour, and the 
Sanctifier of men. When this divine Agent speaks to me as 
my Saviour, I think that I recognize the same identical God, 
of infinite wisdom, power and goodness, who created me and 
all the world around me : though he now sustains toward me 



23 4 THE IXSTRUMENT. 

a different relation than that of Creator. He is my Redeemer. 
And when he speaks to me as my Sanctifier, I think that I re- 
cognize the same divine Agent, who gave himself a ransom for 
the salvation of my soul : though he now sustains toward me 
a third different relation. In these three divine, personal re- 
lationships, I have been able to find but one divine Agent, the 
one living and true God. And I have always supposed that 
the word of God, the word of truth, the gospel of Christ, the 
higher law and the law of the Lord, which is perfect, convert- 
ing the soul, were each and all of them the identical word of 
the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, and Author of regeneration. 
I believe, and have endeavored to show, in the preceding dis- 
cussion, that the word of God is the very expression of his 
will, liis purpose, and the whole desire of his soul. And that 
the higher law, the gospel of Christ is the very emanation of 
the whole desire and purpose of the divine mind on the sub- 
ject of salvation. And that embodied in human language, 
accompanied by the historical facts and examples, necessary 
to illustrate the nature and perfection of the same, it consti- 
tutes the third personal distinction of the Godhead, and is the 
actual goings-forth of the moral omnipotence of Jehovah for 
the salvation of the sinner, in the entire renovation of his 
moral character. 

I ask the mystical objector now, which is the most dishon- 
orable to the infinite Spirit, to ascribe the salvation of a 
world, to the moral influence of his word, or to represent that 
word as totally inefficient for the moral renovation of the sin- 
ner ? Is it a fact that the eternal purpose of God, according 
to the counsel of his will, is so perfectly inefficient, that not 
the least moral change for the better can be produced by it, 
till some special, some supernatural, some profoundly mystical, 
some inexplicable, some inconceivable — I do not know what 
to call it — is introduced, to clear the way, or begin the work, 
or add power or ability to begin with ? If the goings-forth 
of all the efficient will of the Deity in the third person of the 
Godhead, which was constituted for that very purpose, is not 
an adequate cause of the moral change which saves the soul, 
where shall we find an adequate cause ? 



THE IXSTRUMEXT. 235 

When I affirm, tliat the motive influence of truth is the 
sole efficient cause of tlie moral change of regeneration, and 
of the entire sanctification of the redeemed sinner, I intend, and 
I think that I do actually ascribe this saving change to the 
immediate agency and sole efficiency of God my Creator, Re- 
deemer and Sanctiiier, to the exclusion of all created, finite 
agency, and of all physical or material instrumentality. But 
the mystical objector, who affirms, that nothing but the super- 
natural pov^'er of God, or the special influence of the Spirit, 
can eflfect this change, does, in fact, ascribe the change to a 
mere mythical, inexplicable and inconceivable nonentity, im- 
plying real change of purpose or attribute in the Deity, and 
annihilating in the human subject, free agency, moral obliga- 
tion, accountability, and all moral retribution in relation to 
the whole subject. For what is more than natural, must be a 
real addition to natural endowments. And whatever is spe- 
cial, must be a change from what is common, and imply both 
partiality and imperfection. It is, therefore, the imputation 
of mysticism to his word and works of grace that dishonors 
God, and destroys the saving influence of the gospel of Christ, 
and not the ascrij^tion of saving influence to the word of truth. 
To perfectly divest a human agent of all ability to perform 
any right moral act, can not be a very powerful persuasive to 
the performance of duty. 

But God did not think it any dishonor to himself, to take 
into the most perfect, personal union with himself, a human 
agent, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, to become a servant, 
and suflfer as a malefactor, in order to bring this will of God, 
expressed in the higher law, and recorded in the Bible, to bear 
on the case of depraved, sinful men. He said, '' A body hast 
thou prepared me. Then said I, Lo, I come do thy will, O 
God." This will he did in the flesh, and finished when he 
bowed his head on the cross, and gave up the ghost. He 
magnified this law of the Lord, and made it honorable. He 
has embodied it in the language of men, and thus made it ca- 
pable of being brought into contact with the carnal mind of 
the sinner, for his moral renovation. Therefore, the Apostle 
thought it no disparagement of the Holy Ghost to ascribe the 



236 THE INSTRUMENT. 

moral renovation of the whole Church to the will of God, 
which Christ obeyed and magnified. '' By the which will we 
are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ 
once for all." Heb. x. 10. By perfectly obeying this law of 
the Lord in the relations of human society, and suffering, (not 
the punishment for our sins, nor the penalty of the law, both 
of which were impossible) but a voluntary sacrifice, for the 
honor of the law, and the love of perishing souls, he magnified 
it, or put that divine, motive efficiency and adaptation into it, 
by which it is able to reach and penetrate the heart of the evil 
doer, and save his soul ; and not destroy him, as it must have 
done without this atonement. And whenever it is rightly 
presented, by those who undertake to be armor-bearers of the 
holy Spirit, it will reach the moral susceptibilities of the sin- 
ner, and effectually persuade and constrain him to come to 
Christ, submit to God, to embrace the Saviour on the terms 
proposed. Or, rather it will constrain the sinner to look at 
his own character and condition, in this perfect mirror of di- 
vine truth, and he will instantly find power, ability, and 
strength, both moral and jDhysical, and a right good will to 
come to Christ, to cast away all his transgressions, to make 
him a new heart, and a new spirit. The endowments and 
abilities he before employed in resisting and evading the light 
of truth, and obeying the law of sin and death, he now finds 
perfectly adequate, and all-sufficient for all right doing. 

Another fact which confirms the truth of this position is, 
that without the higher law, the perfect law of the Lord, or 
the system of truth called the gospel of Christ, no sinner ever 
is, ever was, or ever can be converted. This is the fact on 
which alone the Avhole utility and necessity of the dispensation 
of the gospel depends. The command of Christ is, " Go ye 
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." 
Mark xvi. 15. But why do this? Because, ''Whosoever 
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." But, 
" How then shall they call on him in whom they have not be- 
lieved ? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have 
not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? 
And how shall they preach except they be sent ? as it is 



THE INSTRUMENT. 237 

written, IIow beautiful are the feet of them that preach the 
gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things ! " 
Rom. X. 13, 14, 15. But if the word of God have no effi- 
ciency in it to produce the great and necessary moral change, 
why all this urgency and importance of preaching the gospel 
to every creature ? If a direct omission of divine supernatu- 
ral power be necessary in the case of every individual sinner, 
why all this array and expense and delay of external ma- 
chinery, totally destitute of any efficiency in relation to the 
end to be attained ? Away with such scandalous imputations 
against the wisdom of God and the efficiency of his truth ! 
A mere child, of common sense, must necessarily and intui- 
tively know, on the first conception of the subject, that 
nothing in the universe can have causal relation to such a 
change but the motive influence of truth. '' The law of the 
Lord is perfect, converting the soul : the testimony of the 
Lord is sure, making wise the simple." It is the very power 
of God which causes the saving change in the mind of the 
sinful agent. 

Again, if we analyze the whole process of moral renovation 
by which the sinner is saved from the bondage of corruption 
and the wrath to come, not a single item can be found but 
what is an immediate eflect of the motive influence of the 
truth contained in the law of the Lord and in the Bible, as- 
cribed to the influence of the truth. And not a single step 
can be taken, in the whole process, even by the Almighty 
author of the change, without the instrumentality of the 
truth. 

Is it necessary, in the commencement of the process, that 
the sinner should be enlightened sufficiently to have some 
just or right conceptions of the law of God, of the nature of 
sin, of accountability, or of his own character and condition 
as an accountable subject of moral government ? Not a sin- 
gle right suggestion on one of these topics can be put in his 
mind but by the light of truth. " By the law is the knowl- 
edge of sin." Rom. iii. 20. " Nay, I had not known sin but 
by the law : for I had not known lust except the law had 
said, Thou shalt not covet." Rom. vii. 7. If any objector 



238 THE INSTRUMENT. 

reply to this, That the heathen have a knowledge of sin, 
though they never saw or heard the written law of the Lord, 
that is very true. " They are a law unto themselves : which 
show the works of the law written in their hearts." The 
identical truths w^hich constitute the first principles of the 
written law of God, were, at the beginning, made intuitive 
in every human intellect. They are intuitive still in the intel- 
lect of every human agent, and can never be obliterated. 
They may be, and are, obscured, hidden, buried deep under 
accumulated vicious passions, habits and propensities, con- 
tracted by continuous evil doing, according to the law^ of sin 
and death. But these first principles of moral rectitude must 
be disentombed, in order to bring their life-giving energies to 
bear on the great fact of God's revealed will, viz : Christ, the 
Son of God, given as a ransom for sinful men. i\nd, as a 
general thing, the w^ritten word in the hand of the living 
teacher is as necessary to effect this as the artificial magnet 
in the hand of the mineralogist is to discover the precious ore 
hid in the bowels of the earth. But the moment any sinner 
sees his own character and condition in the light of the higher 
law, as reflected from the cross of Calvary, that moment he is 
more eflectually awakened and convicted than all the thunders 
and terrors of the material universe could awaken or convict 
him. If, therefore, we may suppose that God may, or does, 
convert and save some, or many, among the heathen, pagan, 
and savage tribes of men, (and I know of no reason w^hy we 
may not suppose this to be so,) yet we can conceive of no 
possible method by which he can convert and save them but 
by bringing this light of evangelical truth into contact with 
their moral susceptibilities, either by intuition, oral tradition 
or direct revelation ; because every other conceivable method 
must necessarily involve a contradiction : there being but the 
one kind of antecedent to any right moral change conceivable, 
and that is the motive influence of truth. If conviction of sin, 
or conscious desert of punishment, be a necessary antecedent 
or accompaniment of the saving change, it can not be pro- 
duced but by the knowledge and motive influence of the 
higher law. Saith Paul, '' I was alive w ithout the law once : 



THE INSTRUMENT. 239 

but when the commandment came sin revived, and I died.'' 
" For without the law^ sin Avas dead." 

Does the savins: chancre inchide believinG^ in Christ, comincr 
to Christ, or accepting of Christ, as he is freely offered to us 
in the gospel ? '' The law w^as our schoolmaster to bring us 
unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." Gal. iii. 24. 
It is not possible that any knowledge or conception of Christ, 
as a Mediator, or of his offices or w^ork, or of the necessity of 
a Mediator or atonement, should reach the subject at all but 
by the Avord of truth contained in the Bible. 

Is regeneration a ceasing to do evil and a learning to do 
w^ell ? is it a change from evil affections, volitions and actions, 
to right feeling and action ? The laAV of the Lord is the only 
rule which marks the distinction between right and wrong, 
good and evil, in any and in every relation that can exist 
among intelligent agents. It is impossible for finite intelli- 
gents to recognize or perceive any moral difference in actions 
or emotions but in the light of the higher law^ Is repentance 
involved in this moral renovation as a necessary condition of 
pardon ? Transgression of the law is the only thing to be 
repented of, and the love of God to a sinful world, manifested 
in giving his Son to die for every man, is the only motive in- 
fluence that ever did, or ever can melt the carnal mind into 
true repentance. Neither of these can be seen, or known or 
conceived of, by a human transgressor, but by the light of 
truth revealed in the gospel of Christ. You may threaten 
wrath upon the sinner, or you may inflict physical suffering 
ever so long, and it will only harden him .in sin, but never 
melt him to evangelical repentance. Nothing but the love 
of God in Christ can effect that. 

Is faith an essential product of the saving change, and a 
necessary condition of justification ? The word of God is the 
only subject of saving faith ; and his testimony in that w^ord 
the only sure and safe warrant to believe. "• But the testi- 
mony of the Lord is sure, making Avise the simple." And, 
" The works of his hands are verity and judgment ; all his 
commandments are sure." Ps. cxi. 7. Is loA^e to God and 
men the legitimate fruit of moral renovation ? Only by the 



210 THE IXSTEUMEXT. 

light of truth is any amiable or lovely trait of character dis- 
coverable in either. Does the believer need a light to guide 
him through this dark world of sin and ignorance ? " Thy 
word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. The 
commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." 
And this is the only light that can guide him a single step in 
the right course to heaven. Does the believer often need 
consolation, comfort and support, during the process of sanc- 
tification and the conflicts of probation in the flesh ? " Thy 
testimonies have I taken for a heritage for ever : for they are 
the rejoicing of my heart." "And in keeping of them there 
is great reward." " Thy statutes have been my song in the 
house of my pilgrimage." And what humble, afflicted or 
sufiering believer on the earth, does not know by experience 
that the word of God gives the strongest and best consolation 
that can be desired or conceived in this world ? 

And whatever else can be named or conceived, as desira- 
ble, or necessary, or useful to a sin-sick soul returning to God 
and seeking heaven, '' through the redemption that is in 
Christ," that also is. promised in the word of God, secured to 
him in the covenant of grace, confirmed by the testimony of 
God, and conferred upon him, at the proper time, by the in- 
fluence of the higher law. 

Now, if any person, in the light of all this divine testimony, 
feels doubtful, or hesitates about receiving this Adew of the 
efliciency of divine truth ; or if any person objects to this 
view of the subject. That the word of God often fails to pro- 
duce the effects I ascribe to it : that many who hear the gos- 
pel and read the Bible, and are instructed in the knowledge 
of the truth, remain impenitent, unconverted, and their moral 
character unaltered for the better, and finally die in unbelief: 
that often very learned, pious and faithful ministers preach 
the gospel for years, and little or no visible eflfect is produced, 
no sinner is converted, no person reformed, but multitudes 
hardened in sin. But when the Spirit is poured out, sinners 
are converted by scores and hundreds, under the same preach- 
ing, with the same word of God in their hands. 

To remove every objection of the kind, and resolve every 



THE INSTRUMENT. 241 

doubt of the sincere inquirer after truth, it will be necessary 
to call his attention again to the character and j^osition of the 
subject of regeneration, to the peculiar nature of the desired 
change, and to the circumstances of the cause, when the 
change does take place, or the assigned cause fails to produce 
the eifect. The subject of regeneration is an intelligent being, 
a free moral agent, capable in himself of originating moral 
change, either good or bad, and of forming a moral character. 
This is his nature, and these attributes are essential to his na- 
ture. And in the exercise of these attributes he must act, if 
he acts at all. Perfect freedom of choice is so absolutely es- 
sential an attribute of his nature, that to deprive him of it, or 
to necessitate his volition or action, would be to deprive him 
of existence as a moral agent. He would instantly cease to 
be a moral agent, or an accountable being. He would be as 
totally incapable of moral character as a block of wood, and 
therefore a totally impracticable subject of regeneration, sanc- 
tification, or any moral change or quality whatever. Contin- 
uous consciousness, or immortality of being, is also another 
essential attribute of a moral agent. Deprived of it, man 
would instantly cease to be an accountable agent. When, 
therefore, a change of moral character is proposed to a human 
agent, or when the means or motive influences for the produc- 
tion of such a change, are presented to his consideration, he 
must exercise perfect liberty to receive or reject them, to 
choose or refuse the proposed change, to yield to the motives 
presented, or to reject them totally, and to refuse to consider 
them at all. 

In the case of the sinner and this proposed moral change, 
the subject has already formed a moral character. And every 
emotion, volition, and action which went to constitute that 
character, was of his own voluntary agency. He is the ac- 
countable author of it. It is his chosen character, which he 
had voluntarily contracted for himself, and which he still cher- 
ishes and cultivates, because he chooses it and because it is of 
himself. It is a sinful character, and he still prefers and 
chooses to commit sin. But the proposed change is from this 
sinful character to a character the very reverse of it ; to one 
11 



242 THE INSTRUMENT. 

that necessarily condemns all his past conduct, all contracted 
habits, propensities, inclinations, and dispositions. One that 
involves the most profound self-abasement and condemnation, 
and totally destroys all past hopes and anticipations. It must, 
therefore, be jDcrfectly obvious to common sense, that all the 
habits of moral feeling and action, the inclinations, propensi- 
ties, desires, and volitions of the unconverted sinner, antece- 
dent to regeneration, must be directly opposed to that change. 
Now, suppose that nine hundred and ninety of every thousand, 
who hear the gospel or read the Bible, reject the truth, refuse 
to submit to its teachings, or resist its motive influence and 
die impenitent, does that argue the least deficiency in the 
word of God as a means, or cause of regeneration, or the 
least limitation of its efficiency to produce a perfect renova- 
tion of moral character ? Suppose a thousand persons are 
dying daily in the city by the cholera, and that an infallible 
remedy is offered at every door to every patient, as soon as 
he is taken with the first symptom. Ten of the thousand take 
the medicine and recover immediately. The nine hundred and 
ninety refuse to take it and die. Does their death prove any- 
thing against the excellence and efficiency of the remedy ? 
Does not the immediate cure of all who took it sufficiently es- 
tablish its perfect efficacy ? So also the conversion and salva- 
tion of every sinner who ever received the word of God into 
his mind, and suffered its actual contact with the moral sus- 
ceptibilities of his soul, proves its perfect infallibility, as God's 
instrument of moral renovation. " He that believeth on the 
Son, hath everlasting life." That is, every one who receives 
the truth as such, is regenerated, sanctified, and saved by its 
purifying and saving moral influence. 

But in order to know and understand the relation of any 
cause to its effect, in any case whatever, it is necessary to take 
into consideration all those circumstances which are essential 
or without which the consequent cannot follow. For instance, 
a spark of fire is sufficient to produce the conflagration of a 
house or a city. This we know, because a single spark has 
often been the cause of the destruction of much property and 
of many lives. But several circumstances were essential to 



THE INSTRUMENT. 243 

the cause, without which the effect never could have followed. 
The spark must have been in actual contact with some com- 
bustible part of the house or city, or of their contents. And 
the atmosphere, at the time and place of the contact, must 
have been in a certain state favourable to combustion. These 
circumstances, though necessary to make out the relation, and, 
therefore, essential to the cause of that particular event, yet 
not being of the substance and essence of the cause, are not 
usually mentioned in assigning the cause of that event. These 
circumstances are often varying in particular cases, and, there- 
fore, can not always be seen and particularized in describing 
the cause of a class or series of events. A quart of water 
may, if applied at the moment when the combustion begins 
to kindle, be sufficient to prevent the conflagration, and save 
the city. But if the application be delayed a few moments 
only, tons of water may be totally insufficient. The city may 
burn to ashes, Avhile the ocean flows all around it. So also 
the light of truth may shine around the sinner with perfect 
brilliancy, but can never improve his character while his mind 
is closed against it. The circumstance of contact with the 
moral susceptibilities of the subject, is always essential to 
moral change ; and the circumstance of time may render the 
application totally inefficient. Habits, by long indulgence, 
often become inveterate, which, if taken in time, might have 
been easily subdued. Till the truth comes in contact with 
those moral susceptibilities which originate character, no 
change of character can be efiected by it. The habit of re- 
jecting and resisting the light of truth, if long continued, may 
become so inveterate as to exclude it for ever. " Can the 
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then 
may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil." Jer. 
xiii. 23. The light of truth in the law of the Lord, which 
now, during probation, is able to save the soul, must, after 
the period of probation is closed, only serve to kindle the 
everlasting burnings which constitute the future punishment 
of the finally impenitent. We are not always competent to 
decide wiio are subjects of moral renovation, and when the 
word of God has produced or failed to produce a saving 



244 THE IXSTIIUMEXT. 

change of character. External circumstances may be very 
fan- and promising while the generic volition of the will, the 
controlling purpose of the soul, and the true character of the 
agent may remain unchanged, perfectly selfish and carnal 
still. Nicodemus was a member in good standing of the 
only true and orthodox Church on earth at the time, a ruler, 
a magistrate, and teacher in that Church, and at the same time 
an unregenerate jDcrson. The thief that was converted on the 
cross but a few hours before he entered Paradise, was, to say 
the least, a very unpromising subject. A man may also at 
the present day be a fashionable Christian in good standing 
in an orthodox Church, may contribute a few thousands of 
his millions for the support and promulgation of Christianity 
in the world. He may occupy a very comfortable seat in a 
very splendid church every pleasant Sabbath morning. He 
may commend very highly the eloquent sermon, as a splendid 
production of learning and talent. He may be an officer in 
the church and society, a teacher, or preacher of the gospel, 
or a manager of a missionary or benevolent society. He may 
read a chapter in the Bible occasionally on the Sabbath morn- 
ing, and make or read a prayer with his family, if business be 
not too urgent. ISTay, more ; he may even attend a daily 
prayer meeting, make very fervent and eloquent prayers, and 
tell very affecting stories about conversions. And still the 
generic, controlling purpose of his soul, the prevailing thought 
of his mind, and all the w^armest affections of his heart, may 
all the time be in his counting room, at the stock market, the 
theatre, the opera, or some other place of profit or pleasure. 
And he may remain unconverted, and die impenitent. While, 
on the other hand, it may not be impossible that thousands 
of poor, ignorant, despised persons, slaves, pagans and sav- 
ages, w^hose characters and conditions have never been re- 
garded or valued by their fellow-men in the world as the 
least remove above the brute animal, either in physical or 
moral worth, guided by a single ray of light from the cross 
of Christ, may be winging their glorious flight from caves of 
the earth, from cabins, wigwams, garrets and altars of squalid 
misery, to the mansions of eternal bliss. A credible professor 



THE INSTRinrENT. 245 

of religion may be a very convenient, cheap and profitable ac- 
companiment of almost any decent worldly profession, pur- 
suit or business, for the accumulation of wealth. And a ray 
of the light of life, reflected from the cross of Christ, may 
penetrate the deepest, darkest cavern of human wretchedness 
and degradation, and free a broken-hearted soul from the law 
of sin and death. 

The word of God has never yet failed to convert the soul, 
and save the sinner, in any case, where it has really come in 
contact Avith the moral susce]3tibilities of the carnal mind, 
during probation. Till such a failure is produced and proven, 
its absolute infallibility, as the cause of moral renovation, can 
not be successfully controverted. Because every human agent 
is at all times a perfectly free, voluntary agent, with perfect 
ability to exclude from his serious consideration any subject 
which he regards as undesirable. But in accounting for the 
supposed failures of the word of God to convert the soul, we 
must not forget, that first principle of the law of sin and 
death, which Christ taught Xicodemus. " For every one that 
doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest 
his deeds should be reproved." Every sinner, who erades the 
light of truth, and dies impenitent, has of course been an evil 
doer, and has passed through that process of moral deprava- 
tion described in the preceding essay on the law of sin and 
death. He has so long and so often evaded the light of truth, 
that it has become a fixed habit, a permanent and uniform 
state of the mind, a continuous desire, or a generic volition of 
his will. He has long since forgotten the first evil deed by 
which the process was commenced. He has, probably, from 
his childhood, heard it often affirmed, that he was born into 
the world with a sinful nature, a child of wrath, exposed to 
eternal punishment, with a natural disposition or propensity 
to sin, and totally destitute of any ability to do right, or help 
himself out of this condition. He has also been taught, that 
all this was inflicted upon him by God his Creator, in punish- 
ment for Adam's sin committed long before he existed. That 
this and all the sin that is committed in the world, was agree- 
able to the eternal purpose of God, and according to the counsel 



240 THE IXSTRUMEXT. 

of his will, foreordained and brought to pass by his agency in 
the works of creation and providence. He has heard reiterated 
from the pulpit, and read in books, that nothing but the super- 
natural power of God can change his sinful nature, and save 
him from this helpless state of inability to all good. These 
dogmas of orthodoxy have very much relieved him of the 
compunctions of a guilty conscience. For he intuitively in- 
fers, and can not avoid feeling, that he can not be very much 
to blame for that which is natural. If he is only what God 
and nature made him, he can not be very far out of the right 
way. He feels that he can not be very guilty for being just 
Avhat God foreordained he should be, and just what God, in 
his most holy, wise and powerful work of providence had 
caused him to be. If nothing but supernatural power of God 
can help him, or change his condition, it must certainly be 
useless to make any efforts of his own. And if the word of 
God has no efficiency in itself, there can be no use in perplex- 
ing his mind, or wasting his time about it. 

This reasoning from the doctrine of original sin is perfectly 
natural, legitimate, logical, and conclusive. And as perfectly 
scriptural, as it is logical and conclusive. Admit the premises, 
and the conclusion can not be avoided. No intelligent of 
common sense can evade or deny it. But the premises are 
false. Human agents are not sinners by nature, but only by 
transgression. They are not helpless imbeciles, but possess 
ability to do right and fulfil all duty. The moral influence of 
truth is the omnipotence of God, for all right moral change. 
In the case of the finally impenitent sinner, the habit of hating 
the light and evading the influence of truth, has long since 
become a permanent or continuous state of the mind. He 
has made no record of the process by which this state of mind 
was acquired, and has entirely forgotten the commencement. 
He, therefore, readily assents to the declaration, that it is nat- 
ural, inflicted on him, or transmitted to him, without his 
knowledge or consent ; and of course it is impossible that he 
should feel any blame for it, or conviction of sin, thus imposed 
npon him without his concurrence. Is it a strange thing, that 
such an evil doer, after such a process of moral depravation, 



THE COXYERSIOX OF XICODEMUS. 247 

under the influence of such habits, established on such prem- 
ises, confirmed by the teaching of pious parents, and grave 
divines, should finally evade the light of truth, and die im- 
penitent? Is the infidelity and the final impenitence of such 
a sinner, any disparagement of the efficiency of divine truth 
for the renovation of human character? And is not the 
preaching of the fiilse doctrine of original sin, and its kindred 
dogmas, casting a stumbling block in the Avay of sinners? 
Our Saviour, while on earth, setting an example to all future 
preachers of the gospel, did not thus deal with inquiring 
sinners. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE COXYEESIOX OF XICODEMUS. 

NicoDEMus was a ruler of the Jews, a master or teacher in 
Israel, a speculative believer in revealed religion, a member 
of the only true Church on earth, and of the strictest sect, or 
most orthodox denomination of that Church. Yet it appears 
that he Avas still an unregenerate sinner. At least the Saviour 
dealt with him as such. From his office and standing in the 
community, he must have been well acquainted with the let- 
ter of the higher law, and with all the instituted rites of re- 
ligious worship, by which the law was illustrated, under the 
Mosaic dispensation. He had been an evil doer, and his con- 
science troubled him. He had hated the light, and had suc- 
ceeded hitherto in excluding its moral influence from govern- 
ing his voluntary conduct. Under a spurious outward deport- 
ment, he had been prosecuting that course of moral deprava- 
tion, which is the natural and necessary consequence of con- 
tinuous evil doing, according to the law of sin and death. He 
had acquired, by evil doing, those habits of hating, evading, 
or resisting the motive influence of truth, which, in the lan- 
guage of modern orthodoxy, are falsely called innate moral 



248 THE COXVEKSIOX OF XICODEMUS. 

depravity, or natural propensity, inclination or disposition to 
sin, a sinful nature, or original sin. He had confirmed and 
strengthened these habits by a course of many years of im- 
penitence, under the clear light of the higher law, and a fair 
external profession. But be seems to have been awakened in 
some degree by the miracles or j^reaching of the Saviour, or 
some other cause ; and came to Jesus by night, an anxious 
inquiring sinner. The time and manner of his coming shows 
that he sustained a foir character before the public, and highly 
valued the good opinion of his countrymen. Nicodemus, 
therefore, presented to the Saviour a perfect specimen of a 
human agent, having contracted a sinful character, under the 
light and motive infuences of the perfect law of the Lord. 
He needed that moral change, without whicli no man can see 
the kingdom of God. To insure his conversion the Saviour 
directed to his moral susceptibilities ; first, the fact of his own 
voluntary transgression and guilt ; and second, the great 
crowning fact of the higher law, or the remedial provisions 
of grace, which the perfect law of the Lord alone provides in 
the otherwise remediless case of the transgressor. These two 
important, but simple truths, are something more than the 
carnal mind of the transgressor can quietly bear. The essen- 
tial point is to bring them both, at the same time, into contact 
with his moral sense. 

Jesus began by declaring to him the absolute necessity of 
being born again. But Xicodemus was so wholly engrossed 
by the things of tlie flesh, and his mind so effectually closed 
against the light of moral truth, that he could think of nothing 
but a physical change. He, therefore, made the stupid in- 
quiry, ^' How can a man be born when he is old?" Jesus 
explained to him the metaphor of the new birth. He meant 
by it that entire, radical change of moral character, symbolized 
by the typical sprinklings and washings with water, in their 
religions services. Nicodemus understood the meaning of all 
these symbols of moral purification. '' Jesus ansAvered, verily, 
verily, I say imto thee. Except a man be born of water, that 
is of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God. 
That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is 



niE COXVEKSIOX OF XICODEMUS. 249 

born of the Spirit is spirit." Here is no mention of original 
sin, of innate moral depravity, or of inability of any kind. Xo 
necessity of supernatural divine power, or special influence is 
suggested, in relation to this important and necessary change. 
The thing meant, by being born of the Spirit, was a plain 
common sense matter of practical duty, as easily understood 
as the course of the wind. Nothing is required, or included, 
or involved in it, but to " Cease to do evil and learn to do 
well." " Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways, for why will 
ye die, O house of Israel ? " " Cast away from you all your 
transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed ; and make you 
a new heart and a new spirit : for why w^ill ye die, O house of 
Israel ? " It is all a practical duty, done by the subject of the 
change, within his personal ability, and depending exclusively 
on his own volition. " Cease to do evil. Turn ye, — Cast aw^ay 
your transgressions, — for why will ye die ? " It is all done by 
willing and obeying. JN'icodemus understood the whole sub- 
ject, and had, doubtless, often enjoined the duty on other evil 
doers. Being a member of the Sanhedrim, a magistrate, and 
a master of Israel, it is impossible that he should have been 
ignorant of the nature of the change, or wholly unconscious 
of his own obligation to perform the duty. 

Jesus, therefore, tells him, "Marvel not that I said unto 
thee. Ye must be born again. The w^ind bloweth where it 
listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh, and w^hither it goeth : so is every one that 
is born of the Spirit." Of all the perversions of language 
ever attempted, the effort to force, out of this plain s.imilitude 
of the wind, the profound and inexplicable mysticisms of super- 
natural omnipotence, and total human inability, rather exceeds 
in bold presumption, and stupid absurdity. Every person of 
common sense knows that the motion of the wind is the most 
common, the most frequent, the most obvious and changeable 
phenomenon in nature ; that it is the most easily perceived 
by the senses, and its uses and inconveniences the quickest 
understood of all natural phenomena ; that it is most easily 
adapted to the use and convenience of men, though the whence 
it came and the whither it goeth are not perceivable by tho 
11* 



250 THE COX^'EESIOX OF XICODEMUS. 

senses. This phenomenon of the wmd is used bv the Saviour 
to illustrate the obvious necessitv of the transcjressor's turninor 
from his evil way, ceasing to do evil, and learning to do well, 
or. changing his moral character, in order to attain peace and 
happiness, and escape punishment. As if he had said to 
Nicodemus, You have no cause to marvel or inquire about 
the methods of this change : it is a plain matter of obvious 
duty, as easily understood as the phenomenon of the wind. 
You can hear the sound of the wind, you can perceive its mo- 
tions and force, you can adjust your position, attitude and 
motions, either to avoid or improve its force, without know- 
ing whence it came, or whither it goes. You do not think, 
or stop to ask so stupid a question as, TThere did the wind 
come from, or where will it go to ? So with respect to this 
moral or spiritual change, all inquiries about the whence and 
the wherefore, the how and the why, are perfectly useless and 
impertinent. You Xicodemus know, as well as you know 
your own existence, that you have sinned, are guilty, and that 
is the cause of your present sufferings and fears of the future. 
And you know too, as well as you know your own existence, 
that you must repent or perish, turn or die, cease to do evil, 
or suffer the consequences. Your presence here, at this time 
of night, on this business, is demonstrative proof that you are 
perfectly conscious of the whole disease, the cause and remedy. 
A httle thought and reflection will discover to any person 
the force and point of this beautiful comparison. All the ob- 
servations, the science and experiments of the world, have 
never enabled any man to tell, with respect to any current of 
wind, at any particular location, from what point of compass, 
or what location it came, or at what place the motion com- 
menced. The result of all inquiry and observation on the 
subject, as for as they tend to confirm any theory is, that the 
motion of the atmosphere, which we call wind, is never in a 
direct hue, but always m a curvilinear or circular direction. 
This is caused by the globular shape of the earth, and the 
curvilinear or circular direction of all its motions ; and also by 
several other influences, which tend constantly to vary the 
course and velocity of the whid : as the varying aspect of the 



THE CONVEESIOX OF XICODEMUS. 251 

sun to different parts of the earth, and the various relative 
heights of different parts of its surface, etc. It is supposed, 
also, according to this theory, that all the considerable changes 
of wind and weather, or storms and hurricanes move in a com- 
plete circle ; and that as their velocity is increased, the radius 
of the circle is diminished, and the concentricity of the course 
increased. And when the velocity is increased to the extreme 
the wind is condensed into an irresistible tornado, mingling 
every thing movable or frangible, in its course, in utter con- 
fusion, destruction, and ruin. " So is every one that is born 
of the Spirit," or that needs this change. The sinner, who has 
formed a moral character by transgression, and contracted 
permanent habits of hating and evading truth, and indulging 
depraved instincts, appetites and passions, cannot, while under 
the law of sin and death, or impenitent, concei\'e how these 
things can be. The reason is, he has never made any record 
of this course of sin and moral depravation, but has always 
justified himself, and endeavored to believe that his conduct 
had been a direct course of right moral action. But, instead 
of this, his first evil deed was a deviation from the straight 
course of truth and moral rectitude. And every step of the 
process since, has been a further deviation, increasing the ve- 
locity of his progress and the concentricity of his character 
towards total depravity ; which, if not changed by conversion, 
before probation ends, must concentrate in a burning tornado 
of depraved passions, guilt, wrath, and final perdition. 

Nicodemus was probably a man of liberal education, a man 
of wealth, high in office, and of most respectable standing in 
society ; to secure his favorable attention, and indelibly fasten 
conviction, Jesus, in this striking comparison, set before him 
a mirror, in which he might see his entire moral character 
and depravity of heart, perfectly separate from all causal in- 
fluence but his own free, unconstrained volition and choice. 
Though he could not remember or tell what false motive in- 
fluences had first induced him to turn aside from the path of 
truth and rectitude, or what delusive influences had led him, 
as it were, a voluntary captive, so far along the way of sin and 
death, no more than he could tell whence came the wind and 



N 



I 

252 THE CONVERSION OF XICODEMUS. f 

Avhither it went ; yet he could not avoid seeing and feeling that 
liis present, habitual and voluntary course of action and feel- 
ing was in direct transgression of the perfect law of the Lord, 
and no conceivable cause for it but his own will. 

And as the least cultivated human intellect on the earth, 
though he can not tell whence the wind cometh and whither it 
goeth, is nevertheless capable of understanding the phenom- 
enon of the wind, if he will, at least as far as his own senses 
perceive the sound and course of it, and of adjusting his own 
position and course of action, to avoid its force, or turn it to 
some useful purpose. And as even the brute animals, when 
they suffer by the cutting blast, understand the cause of their 
suiFering, and have wit enough to turn tail to, or take the lee 
side of the barn, to avoid the force of the wind. Even so, 
every transgressor of the law of God, on the face of the earth, 
knows or may know, if he will, just as Avell as he knows his 
own existence, when his guilty conscience disturbs his peace, 
what the cause of his misery is, and what he must do to avoid 
the consequences. If he is ignorant, his ignorance is wilful. 
If he professes inability, his inability is feigned and false. But 
the hardened impenitent, under the light of the gospel, has 
been so long in the habit of doing evil, and evading or re- 
sisting the light of truth, that he will not turn or change his 
purpose or action as long as he can taste a drop of sensual 
pleasure in his wonted course, or form the shadow of an ex- 
cuse for delaying the change. And yet we hear grave divines 
in the pulpit quoting this illustration, to prove that the trans- 
gressor never does, and never can turn, or change the charac- 
ter of his moral conduct, but that he labors under a total 
inability, or rather impossibility of turning, or of doing any 
thing morally right, or conformable to the higher law. An 
inability or impossibility, which no power or influence in the 
universe, but the supernatural power of God, can remove or 
remedy. 

But Nicodemus was so full of original sin, or some 
other kindred dogma of mysticism, that he still doubts 
and makes another eflbrt to justify delay. ''How can these 
things be?" A question as destitute of any object, subject, 



THE CONVEIISION OF NICODEMUS. 253 

point or meaning, as the inquiry, How can a man and himself 
occupy the same space at the same time? And, therefore, 
Jesus paid no attention to it, but to reiterate the truth he had 
affirmed. "Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not 
these things?" Now, if there had been any such thing as 
original sin, or innate moral dei^ravity, or a natural j^ropensity 
to sin, or any inability, or other obstacle, in the case of Nico- 
demus, or of any sinner, to hinder him from changing his 
moral conduct, or from being born again, or from making to 
himself a new heart, and a new spirit, or to hinder him from 
complying with the terms of the gospel, or from being regen- 
erated, at any time : or if there had been any incomprehensible 
mystery about the subject, which Xicodemus could not under- 
stand, or which Avas above the comprehension of mankind in 
general ; this was certainly the time for Jesus to have men- 
tioned it, and explained it to the mind of this inquiring, anx- 
ious sinner. If any such thing existed, or might materially 
affect the condition or the recovery of the sinner, we must 
think it ought to have been mentioned in this discourse, which 
was to be recorded, and stand as a pattern and example of the 
means and method of converting sinners in all future time. 
But not a word suggesting any such thing is found in this 
discourse, or in all the Bible beside, except merely what ob- 
stacles lie in the free voluntary action of his own will at the 
time. I know, and have not forgotten, that the Saviour said, 
" No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent 
me draw him." And to the same gospel-hardened Jews he said 
also : " And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." 
But both in the case of Nicodemus, and these untoward Jews, 
the Father had for years been drawing, with all the motive in- 
fluence, and moral omnipotence, which infinite wisdom, power 
and goodness could contrive, or bring to bear on their case. 

Jesus answered him just as if Nicodemus understood the 
w^hole subject, and knew perfectly well that there was no 
mystery about the subject of this moral change, and not the 
least obstacle in the way to prevent his making the change 
at any moment during his probation ; and that it was just as 
easy for him to make the change, symbolized by being born 



254 THE CONVERSION OF NICODEMUS. 

of water, that is of the Spirit, as it was to turn his back to the 
wind wlien it blew too hard in his face. Nicodemus un- 
doubtedly did know, and was perfectly conscious, that he had 
sinned and was guilty, and must turn or die, repent or perish. 
He had just confessed that he knew Jesus was a teacher come 
from God, " For no man can do these miracles that thou 
dost, except God be with him." Of course, then, he knew 
that what Jesus said unto him was true as God himself is 
true ; and he now understood, perfectly, what Avas meant by 
being born again. When, therefore, Jesus added, " We speak 
that we do know, and testify that we have seen ; and ye re- 
ceive not our witness," he was convicted out of his own 
mouth, and perfectly confounded at his own duplicity, self- 
deception, perverseness and stupidity, and did not answer an- 
other syllable during the interview. And that common sense, 
or gift of intuition, Avhicli God has implanted in every created 
moral intelligent, making it an essential part of his nature, 
renders it impossible that Nicodemus, or any other gospel 
sinner, should have been ignorant of these things, or uncon- 
scious of his obligation and ability to cease to do e^il, and 
learn to do well, or to change the generic purpose of his will, 
in relation to the law of the Lord. 

But if there was, at that time any sin, or sinfulness, or moral 
obliquity, in the nature, the character or disposition of Nico- 
demus, which he had not contracted by his own voluntary 
agency, or which had been inflicted on him by any other 
agency, or which had come upon him by any other influence 
w^hatever, without his knowledge, previous consent and voli- 
tion, or which he had not ability to turn away from, avoid or 
cease to practice, or if he labored under any inability to change 
the relation of his moral conduct, then this discourse of Jesus, 
addressed to him, was deceitful, delusive ; and the close of it 
implied a false accusation against Nicodemus. And if sin- 
ners, at the present time, come into existence, full of innate 
moral depravity, or original sin, or have a depraved, sinful 
and guilty nature inflicted on them, in punishment of Adam's 
sin, antecedent to their knowledge volition or action ; and if 
no influence, but the supernatural power of God, can change 



THE CONVERSIOX OF NICODEMUS. 255 

this polluted nature, then the pretended offer of a free salva- 
tion in the gospel, the invitation to come and take of the 
water of life freely, and the exhortations to turn and live, be- 
lieve and be saved, repent and receive remission of sins, are 
all solemn mockery, false pretences, and abusive insults of 
human misery. As if a cold-hearted, unfeeling tyrant should 
cast an innocent victim of his hatred into the dungeon, load 
him Avith chains and fetters, and rivet them down to the floor, 
and then invite him to walk up into his splendid palace and 
dine with him, and after make the range of his pleasure 
grounds, and regale himself on the rich fruits of his gardens, 
and then take a seat in the privy council, and assist in the ad- 
ministration of his o;overnment. AYho can avoid feeling^ that 
this conduct would be the utmost refinement of malice, hatred 
and malignant cruelty. But the God of the Bible and Saviour 
of men is an infinitely diflerent character. And his method 
of dealing, even with sinful men, is exactly and totally the 
reverse of this. He reproves for nothing but voluntary trans- 
gression. He commands nothing, but on the basis of entire 
ability of the subject, both moral and physical, to obey. He 
invites only when ready and willing to bestow at the moment. 
He never tantalizes ; but always exercises his infinite wisdom, 
power and goodness, to save the sinner, as long as there is a 
single ray of hope, or the least possibility of salvation in his 
case. 

He, therefore, proceeded with Xicodemus : " If I have told 
you of earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe 
if I tell you of heavenly things." Jesus had stated to him a 
plain matter of obvious duty, absolutely necessary to his sal- 
vation, which must be performed during his earthly probation 
in the flesh. He must change his moral conduct, by ceasing 
to do evil and learning to do well. The Holy Ghost had been 
striving, with the word of truth, to persuade him to make 
this change, ever since he committed his first evil deed. The 
Spirit was still striving with him, and he was resisting the 
Spirit by rejecting the truth, which he knew and acknowl- 
edged had come from God. And there was not the least ob- 
stacle in the universe to hinder his turning that very moment, 



256 THE CONVERSION OF NICODEMUS. 

but in his own will. His whole case, disease, trouble, and dis- 
tress of mind, which brought him to Jesus by night, is told in 
a single sentence, " Ye will not come unto me, that ye might 
have life." 

How did Jesus farther proceed with this convicted sinner ? 
Did he tell him to wait till some supernatural power of the 
Almighty was put forth to change his nature ? Did he tell 
him that he had no ability to believe or obey the truth? Or 
did he tell him there was no efficiency in the word of truth to 
effect a saving change of character ? Or did he tell him to 
wait for or expect any special, or different, or greater influence 
of the Spirit, than the plain, simple influence of the truth ? 
— He told him nothing of the kind, nor uttered a syllable from 
which he might infer any thing of the kind. But he gave 
him another thrust with the sword of the spirit, which is the 
word of God, the higher law. And at the last saving thrust, 
he pointed it with the great crowning fact by which the per- 
fect law of the Lord was magnified and made honorable, and 
its moral omnipotence brought to bear on perverted human 
intellect. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the w^ilderness, 
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." " For God so 
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting 
life." 

Having thus set before Nicodemus the true character of 
God, and the nature and perfection of his higher law, as illus- 
trated in the atonement made for all men on the cross of Cal- 
vary, he again reiterated the humbling fact, that his own ha- 
tred of the light of truth, contracted by his own evil doing, 
was the sole obstacle in the way of his conversion ; and that 
his own voluntary action was the sole cause of all his blind- 
ness or want of understanding, of all his inability and insensi- 
bility. "And this is the condemnation, that light is come 
into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, be- 
cause their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil 
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds 
should be reproved. Such was the character of Nicodemus 
when he left Jesus, or when the conference closed. And such 



THE COXYERSIOX OF iNICODEMUS. 257 

is the character and condition of every gospel sinner, wliether 
awakened and anxious, or ever so stupid, careless, and indif- 
ferent. And no human agent was ever condemned or guilty, 
or felt compunction of conscience, or fear of punishment, or 
is ever capable of suffering penal infliction under moral gov- 
ernment, till he has actually seen the light of the higher law, 
felt the obligations it imposes, and transgressed its require- 
ments. 

When, exactly, Nicodemus submitted, and found peace in 
believing, we are not told. But it could not have been long ; 
probably it was before he slept again. The next we hear of 
him, like a bold Christian confessor, he is pleading the higher 
law, in defence of Christ, before the assembly of the chief 
Priests and Pharisees. This conversion of Nicodemus is a 
true specimen of the conversion of an enlightened or gospel- 
hardened sinner, with the word of truth. This conference 
with Jesus is recorded in the third chapter of John, to be au 
example and pattern, through all future time, to all teachers 
of Christianity, of the true method of dealing with enlight- 
ened, unregenerate sinners. It first shows us the propriety 
and utility of j)rivate social conference, with one or a few in- 
dividuals on this important subject. It shows how few, and 
how plain and simple are the proper topics of such conference. 
Jesus was very careful to suggest only two plain, simple, per- 
sonal topics to Nicodemus. First, his own exclusive and per- 
sonal authorship of everything that constituted his sinful, 
guilty, wretched condition, as a subject of God's moral 
kingdom, including all his pretended ignorance and inability. 
His second topic, or object of discourse, was to present to 
the apprehension of Nicodemus a just conception of the true 
character of God and his perfect law, as illustrated on the 
cross of calvary. By placing these two plain but important 
topics in antithetical contrast, in the mind of Xicodemus, he 
kindled in his conscience a temporary hell, with w^hich he 
could neither eat, drink, nor sleep, nor taste a drop of sensual 
pleasure, rest, or peace, till his independence, pride, self-com- 
placency, and self-righteousness were broken down and crushed 
out, and the second glorious topic had absorbed his whole 



258 THE CONVERSION OF NICODEMUS. 

t^oul. Jesus treated the ignorance, doubt, marvel, and pre- 
tendeel inability of Nicodemus, as entirely out of character, 
absurd, and false, and sent him away perfectly convicted, out 
of his own mouth, of their falsehood. Therefore, in the ac- 
count of this conference, there is not the least intimation of 
any mystery, obscurity, or inexplicability in relation to this 
change, or any inability of the subject, outside of his own 
will or voluntary action. Nor is there the least intimation of 
any power, influence, or instrumentality in causal relation to 
this saving change, except the motive influence of the light 
of truth. And the same is true in respect to the conversion 
of Saul of Tarsus, of Cornelius the centurion, of the Phihppian 
jailer, and of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost, and 
with respect to every conversion mentioned in the Bible. 

Though most of these conversions were preceded or fol- 
lowed by miraculous circumstances, yet not one of these mir- 
acles is ever represented as the causal antecedent of any con- 
version, or moral change for the better. But in every case 
the circumstances prove that the miracles could have had no 
possible influence on the subjects of conversion, but by way 
of motive influence, to awaken their attention, or bring the 
light of truth to bear on their moral susceptibilities. And in 
every case, the truths of the higher law are set forth as the 
obvious and sole cause of the moral changes, or the conver- 
sions that took place at the time. In the case of Saul, he says 
of his conversion, '' When the commandment came, sin re- 
vived and I died." " For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." In 
the case of Cornelius it is written, '' While Peter yet spake 
these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the 
word." Remember, the person of the Holy Ghost is consti- 
tuted by God acting through and with the motive influence 
of his will, embodied or expressed in human language. In 
the case of the jailer, it is said that ''They spake unto him 
the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house." 
And the three thousand were pricked in heart only when they 
saw their own sin and guilt in crucifying the Lord of glory ; 
but they did not believe till the love of God and his gracious 



SUiUMARY or RESULTS. 269 

promise to the fiithers, was set in contrast before their minds. 
And so of every conversion mentioned in the Bible ; the light 
of truth was the sole efficient cause of it. 



CHAPTER VI. 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 



1st. We learn from the discussion of the subject w^hat the 
guilty smner, under the light of the gospel, may and ought to 
do. When he feels the first painful twinge of conscious guilt, 
he may and ought to look to Jesus Christ, the one living and 
true God manifested in the flesh, giving himself a ransom for 
all, and illustrating the infinite perfection of his law on the 
cross of Calvary, and to receive a ray of the light of truth re- 
flected from thence. A single ray will, in a moment, bleach 
out of his character every tinge of sinful pride, self-righteous- 
ness, self-complacency, and every high thing that exalteth 
itself against the knowledge of God, and will give him sweet 
and delightful peace of conscience. This is perfectly within 
the compass of his ability to perform, and just as easily per- 
formed as turning his back to the wind when too keen for his 
face. It is a perfectly plain and obvious duty, of which the 
sinner himself is conscious, and often resolves to perform at 
some future indefinite period. When he is persuaded and 
freely wills to do this, it is the easiest and pleasantest thing 
to do that ever was done by human agent in the flesh. 

But the sinner long accustomed to evade or resist the light 
of truth will not do this as long as he can occupy his mind 
with sensual pleasures, or contrive an excuse for delay. The 
reason why he will not is seen in the law of sin and death, de- 
scribed in a preceding essay. That law having been once 
chosen, must govern, till the subject forms a new generic pur- 
pose of will to obey the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus, or the perfect law of the Lord. 



260 suMr^r.vr.Y of hesults. 

2d. We infer what the object of the Christian teacher of 
such sinners should be, how it must be effected, and with 
what instrumentahtj. His ultimate object should be, as soon 
as possible, to persuade, that is, morally constrain them by 
motive influence, to make this generic purpose of will, or this 
unconditional resolve of soul, to change their whole course of 
moral conduct, in obedience to the command of their Maker 
and Saviour. He will then perfectly concur in object and 
motive with the Holy Ghost, and become a co-worker with 
God for the salvation of sinners. 

The method, and the only method of effecting this, is the 
one which Jesus pursued with Mcodemus and with Saul. 
The same that Paul and Silas took with the jailer, and Peter 
with the thousands on the day of Pentecost. They brought 
the great leading facts, or pervading truths of the sinner's 
condition, and of God's holy and gracious administration, into 
contact with the intellectual and moral endowments of their 
hearers. First, of the sinner's condition, the fact that all his 
sin, his guilt, his moral depravity, and every shade of moral 
deformity that darkens his character, including all his inabil- 
ity, physical, intellectual and moral, with all his ignorance and 
stupidity, are of his own contracting. He is the sole agent and 
accountable author of it all. His own voluntary agency 
brought it into existence, and was the sole, proximate, pri- 
mary and efficient cause of its existence. He himself, with 
evil heart and Avicked hands, has perpetrated the whole. 
Second, of God's administration, the fact of his infinite love, 
benevolence, pity and compassion, embodied in the provisions 
of his perfect law, illustrated on and reflected from the cross 
of Calvary. These two important facts, brought into contrast 
and presented to the carnal mind of the sinner, constitute the 
necessary and only efficient instrumentality in the case of such 
sinners. These are the two divine, motive factors which the 
Holy Ghost always employs to effect the saving change of re- 
generation. When these two facts, in connection, come in 
contact with the moral susceptibilities of any sinner in the 
flesh, he must quail, he will kneel, and pray, and submit, and 
become a sinner saved by grace. 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 261 

3d. In this whole change, whicli constitutes the salvation 
of the sinner, there is no change of nature, no impartation of 
power, no conferring or increase of ability, no giving of new 
propensities, dispositions, inclinations, etc., ab extra^ and no 
transference of character, of habits, or any moral qualities. 
These are all created, contracted or formed, by the subject to 
w^hich they belong. But it is a change of moral character ; 
and the change, and the character of the agent w^hich is 
changed, are two distinct things, and must be conceived of 
as distinct things, if w^e would either think or speak intelligi- 
bly on the subject. The character changed is w^holly and ex- 
clusively the creation of the human agent, both antecedent 
and subsequent to the change. The change is exclusively in 
the relation w^hich the character sustains to the law of God. 
But the change is the creation of God, acting in the third 
person of the Godhead, the Holy Ghost. The motive influ- 
ence of the light of truth, or of his holy wall embodied in 
human language, is the sole cause of the change. This Holy 
Ghost and light of truth, this Author and instrument, are a 
perfect personal identity. There is no confounding or min- 
gling of divine and human agencies ; but a perfect opposition 
of action between them, antecedent to the commencement of 
the change in regeneration. A concurrence commences then, 
and increases as sanctification progresses, but the agencies 
continue perfectly distinct through the whole process of moral 
renovation, or as long as the subject continues in the flesh. 
There is nothing in this change, or in the Avhole process by 
w^hich it is efiected, of the nature of physical agency, physical 
powder or force, causation or instrumentality. It is all in the 
moral sphere, a purely spiritual change. It is perfectly 
unique, without a parallel : because the only radical and 
entire change of the character of a free subject of moral gov- 
ernment wdthin the compass of our know^ledge. 

4th. N^o human being can be the subject of conversion, 
regeneration or sanctification, but a subject of moral govern- 
ment, who has actually transgressed the law and incurred 
guilt, and thus commenced the formation of a sinful charac- 
ter. This w^ill exclude the millions of infants, idiots, etc., who 



262 SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 

pass out of the flesh before their intellectual and moral sus- 
ceptibilities are sufficiently developed to give moral character 
to their actions. They need no moral renovation, because 
they have no moral character to be renovated or changed. 
Their physical organization has not animal life and strength 
or vitality sufficient for the development of manhood, of a 
moral agent, or a subject of moral government. They are, 
therefore, by the divine Redeemer, who gave himself a ran- 
som for all, graciously removed out of this world of sin and 
misery, into another sphere of purer atmosphere, where they 
may dcA^elop their endowments out of the reach of temptation 
to sin. There they contract their moral character, meet for 
the inheritance of the saints in light. '' For of such is the 
kingdom of God." Luke xviii. 16. 

5th. N'o human agent, during his probation in the flesh, 
ever labors under any inability, either physical, intellectual or 
moral, to perform all duty, and fulfil all obligation, that can 
be imposed upon him ; because no authority, power or sove- 
reignty in the universe, can impose duty or obligation, in the 
least degree, beyond the ability of the subject to perform ; 
for it is a natural impossibility for a human agent to feel obli- 
gation or discern duty beyond his ability to perform. There- 
fore, secondly, duty and obligation can not attach where 
ability of any kind is wanting. And, thirdly, because, when- 
ever a human agent in the flesh does act, either in obeying or 
transgressing the law, he acts in possession and in exercise 
of, and employs all the ability that can be employed in fulfil- 
ment of all obligation. If he obeys, all duty and obligation 
are fulfilled, and all needful ability employed. If he disobeys, 
all the motive influences of the law of God, which are always 
present, paramount and greater than any possible motive in- 
fluence to the contrary, are resisted, evaded and overcome : 
and, therefore, much more ability, physical, intellectual and 
moral, are necessarily put forth than was sufficient to have 
fulfilled all the duty and obligation the law could impose. 
" The way of transgressors is hard," because every trangres- 
sion they commit costs them vastly more expenditure of abil- 
ity, of every kind, than was necessary to have fulfilled all the 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 263 

law required. As the drunkard's first debauch of a single 
day costs him more wear and tear, of all his animal organs, 
than a whole year of temperate, healthful and useful living. 
And every repetition of the debauch requires a still greater 
expenditure of animal vitality and strength to work it off. 
So every transgression of the law of God, even the most 
secret sin of the soul, which is never developed into overt 
action, i-equires more expenditure of ability than to have 
obeyed the law. And all this strength of ability, which 
ought to have been employed in obedience, is converted into 
strength of sinful habit, by free, voluntary transgression 
against the paramount motive influence of all truth, l^o hu- 
man agent has two sets of organization or endowments or 
abilities. Those endowments and abilities with which he 
does right, are identically the same with which he must do 
wrong if he will commit sin : and identically the same with 
which he must repent, believe, cease to do evil and learn to 
do well, and fulfil the whole righteousness of the law, in his 
own perfectly renovated, personal character, if he is ever 
saved. 

Therefore, the cause of any human agent's committing sin, 
^ or of his continuing to commit sin, or of his not being con- 
verted on his first consciousness of guilt, or at any subsequent 
time, is never of the nature of inabihty, and never can be ; 
but is always of the nature of positive agency, actual effort or 
efiiciency put forth, in opposition to moral influence, and must 
necessarily be of this nature. To talk about the inability of 
sinners, on probation under the light of the gospel, to repent, 
believe, love God and perform all Christian duties, is simply 
preposterous. And to quote those passages of Scripture, 
which represent these Christian graces as the gift of God 
and the work of the Spirit, to prove the inability of sinners, 
is perverting and falsifvdng the word of God. God does give 
these graces, and every good and every perfect gift, and by 
his Spirit does work in all men both to will and do of his 
good pleasure, whenever they do any thing agreeable to his 
will. But he bestows these graces, and works all these good 
gifts, and every thing else in his moral kingdom, with the 



264 SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 

motive influence of the word of truth. This word of truth is 
always before the intellect of the gospel sinner. 

6th. There is no incomprehensible mystery about the re- 
generation, conversion or sanctification of the sinner. No 
supernatural power, influence or agency, is ever put forth or 
employed in eflecting the moral renovation of human charac- 
ter. The whole needed and saving change consists in ceasing 
to do evil and learning to do right. God persuades the sin- 
ner to do this, by presenting a few plain, simple facts to his 
intellectual and moral perception. This is eflectual calling, 
regeneration and conversion. The necessary facts are so 
plain and simple that no human agent, who has ability to 
distinguish between right and wrong, or do either, can avoid 
understanding and feeling their saving motive influence, with- 
out greater efibrt and more expense of ability than to make a 
new heart and a new Spirit. Therefore, every sinner, if he 
will, may know and understand the whole process of moral 
renovation, and all the agency and instrumentality connected 
with it. If he is ignorant, it has cost him a continuous efibrt, 
from his first evil deed, to keep in the dark. 

When the God of infinite wisdom, power and goodness, 
had created an innumerable race of intelligent moral agents, 
it was perfectly natural for him to put them under an infin- 
itely perfect system of moral government, making adequate 
provision for their highest perfection and happiness. In doing 
this he must necessarily make adequate and perfect provision 
for every possible contingency incidental to such a system. 
The entrance of sin is such a contingency. Having made 
such provision, and the contingency having occurred, it was 
perfectly natural for this God, on the very day that sin by 
one man entered the world, to put in requisition his perfect 
provision of grace. It was perfectly natural for him, on that 
day, to assume the necessary personal relations towards the 
fallen race, and to commence the work of converting and 
saving sinners. This he did, on that very day, presenting 
himself, in the personal relations of Redeemer and Sanctifier, 
to the two first evil-doers of the human family. They were 
converted, repented, believed, were pardoned, were absolved. 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 265 

received into divine protection and instruction, for their com- 
plete moral renovation. And the very same truths were used 
on that day, in the conversion of our progenitors, which the 
same divine Agent addressed to Nicodemus in their night 
conference. The same that Peter preached to the thousands 
on the day of Pentecost : the same that slew Saul in the road 
to Damascus : the same that converted Cornelius and his 
friends ; the jailer, and every other sinner that ever was con- 
verted. The seed of the w^oman should bruise the serpent's 
head. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son. Addressed to guilty, convicted sinners. And this work 
and method of salvation is so perfectly natural and agreeable 
to the will of God, that he has never ceased, to this day, to 
pervade with the omnipresent light of his higher law every 
corner of his footstool where human intellect was ever de- 
veloped to know the difference between right and wrong, or 
to commit sin. And he has never withdrawn his Spirit, or 
withheld the light of his truth, from any guilty sinner, till 
that sinner had enjoyed and ended a sufficient day of proba- 
tion under his administration of grace. Nor has he ever 
ceased to do all that a God of infinite wisdom, power and 
goodness, can justly, equitably and consistently do, to con- 
vert and save the whole human race, and every individual of 
the human race. It is his declared will and pleasure that all 
men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the 
truth. " Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I 
have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that the 
wicked turn from his w^ay and live." Ezek. xxxiii. 11. " But 
he is in one mind, and who can turn him ? and what his soul 
desireth, even that he doeth." Job xxiii. 13. 

Therefore, no man on the earth having committed sin, ever 
did, or ever can die in his sins, or end his probation uncon- 
verted, with God's consent or by his direct agency, or by his 
neglecting to do anything for him that God can justly or con- 
sistently do for his salvation. Every man that commits an evil 
deed, knows, or may know, by his own intuitive consciousness, 
if he will suffer the light of truth to reach his conscience, that 
he is guilty, and must repent and cease to do evil, or suffer 
12 



266 SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 

the penal consequences of his evil doing. And every man 
knows, or may know if he will reflect a moment, that it is jDcr- 
fectly natural and consistent for infinite goodness to forgive 
sin, if justice can be satisfied, and the moral influence of the 
law maintained. And all men, without the least exception, 
know and believe as firmly as they believe their own existence, 
that whenever sin is committed or injury perpetrated, atone- 
ment is necessary to satisfy justice and preserve the moral in- 
fluence of law ; and that atonement is, or may be made in 
some way or another. Therefore, as soon as they are con- 
scious of guilt, they go about to find or to make atonement, 
as naturally and as uniformly as they seek food to satisfy hun- 
ger. Even the most learned and zealous unitarians, who to- 
tally repudiate the idea of atonement for ofiences against the 
moral government of God, always claim it in their own case 
when they suffer injury, and acknowledge it in all other rela- 
tions, except when their own evil deeds may be implicated. 
They never speak or write about the relations of human soci- 
ety, without afiirming the necessity of atonement, whenever 
a proper occasion occurs. 

God, on the day when Adam first sinned, revealed to the 
whole human family the true atonement, which taketh away 
the sin of the world, and thus provided that every individual 
of the race might know and understand it, and avail himself 
of the benefit, unless prevented by his own or his neighbor's 
fault. The tradition of this has never been wholly lost, that 
I know of, by any tribe or family of the race to this day. But 
mankind have been prone to turn away from this atonement, 
and try to make one themselves. The reason why so many 
decline or refuse to accept this atonement is a simple, plain, 
perfectly natural, and to every evil doer, a very powerful and 
adequate reason. This Lamb of God that taketh away the 
sin of the world, is the same offering by which the law of the 
Lord is magnified and made honorable, and its moral influence 
brought to bear on the carnal mind without destroying life. 
The evil doer can not, therefore, look to this atonement, with- 
out seeing the glorious light and infinite perfection of the 
higher law, the light of truth, the light of God. And this 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 26'? 

light immediately reflects liis own deformed, polluted, odious 
character, which torments his guilty conscience. 

The sight of this glorious light of tlie higher law, as mag- 
nified and illustrated in the cross of Christ, is death to the 
impenitent sinner. A single flash of it killed Saul of Tarsus, 
in a moment. Says he, " I was alive without the law once, but 
when the commandment came sin revived, and I died." It 
was a moral death, a very natural death, a timely death, and, 
therefore, a saving death. And this light of the higher law, 
which slew the guilty Saul, proved to be the light of life to 
his soul. And he was led into Damascus a regenerated man. 
To him it was the power of God unto salvation : the law of 
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, freeing him from the law of 
sin and death. He was efiectually persuaded, and found abil- 
ity in himself to embrace Christ, to cease doing evil and learn 
to do well, by proclaiming this same Redeemer and his aton- 
ing blood to others for their salvation. 

Now, there is no inexplicable mystery about this subject, 
except in the infinity of the love of God to sinful men. Every 
person of common sense may, if he will, understand the whole 
agency, instrumentality and process, as easily and as perfectly, 
as he can find the way across the street to the theatre, the 
museum, or the church-door. Even the child of ten years may 
understand the whole, if plainly stated to him. For the Holy 
Ghost, in this whole work of saving sinners by their moral 
renovation, uses the very same instrumentality, and pursues 
the same method, w^hich your child of ten years, uses to 
change your generic purpose of will, or persuade you, to give 
him a ride, or get him a new garment. The Spirit just pre- 
sents to the intellectual and moral sensibilities of the subject a 
few plain facts, involving and illustrating the condition of the 
subject, and the necessity and importance of the change. The 
child knows how intuitively, and does precisely the same thing 
in the same method, to produce a similar change in the gen- 
eric purpose, or will of the parent. And the sinner, who be- 
comes the subject of this saving change, goes through the 
very same process, and no other or dififerent process of feel- 
ing, emotions and volitions, which the offending child passes 



268 SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 

through, in becoming reconciled to, and securing the favor of 
his offended parent. He believes the truths his parent presents 
to his perception. He is sorry for and repents of his faults ; 
and resolves and promises to amend his ways in the future. 
The converted sinner can do no more. The only conceivable 
difference is in the magnitude and importance of the interests 
involved, and the consequences to follow. In the one case, 
they are comparatively very trifling, and very limited in ex- 
tent and duration ; in the other, they are to human conception 
of infinite importance, and unbounded both in extent and du- 
ration. Therefore, Jesus Christ, the divine Saviour, presents 
the case of the child and the converted sinner, as in all other 
respects, exact parallels. '' Verily I say unto you. Except ye 
be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter 
into the kingdom of heaven." Matt, xviii. 3. 

Where now are the inexplicable dogmas, which have, for 
ages, enveloped this whole subject, in profound mysticism, 
and filled the Church with contention, strife and bloodshed ? 
Where are the dogmas of original sin, of guilt antecedent to 
moral action, of total depravity antecedent to transgression, 
of entire inability, of innate moral pollution, and sin judicially 
inflicted on innocent babes in punishment of Adam's trans- 
gression ? Where is the covenant made thousands of years 
before the parties existed ? Where are the representatives, 
who commit sin by proxy, and contract guilt for their prin- 
cipals, thousands of years before their constituents come into 
existence? Where are the relations, that existed and im- 
posed duty and obligation, before the subjects of these same 
relations commenced existence? Where the one God that 
exists in three persons, and begets his Son by eternal genera- 
tion ? Where is the supernatural power and special influence 
of the almighty and unchangeable God ? Or where is the sen- 
tence, the word or phrase, in the Bible, that teaches or sug- 
gests one of these absurd contradictions or mysticisms ? In 
the light of divine, revealed truth, and common sense, all 
these mysticisms vanish into metaphysical romance and theol- 
ogical fiction. 'Not one of these inexplicable dogmas can be ex- 
pressed, or any conception of it, presented to the human mind, 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 2G9 

by all the words in tlie Bible, put together in all the myriads 
of forms of which they are capable, Avithout the addition of 
some other word, or words, of human invention, to express 
these fictions of depraved human imagination. It can not, 
therefore, be reasonably supposed, that any of these dogmas 
belong to, or sustain any relation, to the system of Christian 
doctrine, taught in the Bible. 

But, divested of these mysticisms, the subject of the sinner's 
character, condition and destiny, becomes a plain, common 
sense matter, of practical duty and obligation, between him 
and his Maker ; just as easily understood and performed, 
when seriously attempted, as the duties of any other relation. 
We have sinned and incurred guilt, or desert of penal suffer- 
ing, by transgressing a perfect law. This every sinner is as 
conscious of as he is of his own existence. And that inde- 
structible image of God, in which every human agent was 
created, consisting of those moral susceptibilities which we 
call conscience, or the moral sense, includes all the agency, 
the whole material, and the entire instrumentality and effi- 
ciency, for the production of all the misery, torment and suf- 
fering, indicated in the Bible, by everlasting punishment, the 
lake of fire and brimstone, the wine of the wrath of God, and 
all the horror-exciting metaphors of that class. And the 
higher law, with all the motive influences of eternal unchange- 
able truth, is ever ready, the moment the impenitent leaves 
the flesh, to excite and kindle the everlasting burnings. And 
the same identical image of God, which is essential to the na- 
ture and existence of every human agent, includes also the 
whole agency and material for the production of all the glory 
and felicity indicated by the kingdom of heaven, kingdom of 
God, love of God, fellowship of Christ, communion of the 
Holy Ghost, and eternal life ; and by all the hope-inspiring 
metaphors of the Bible. And the same perfect law is ever 
ready, the moment you submit your will to the law of the 
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, to kindle this felicity, and give 
you as much of heaven as you are capable of receiving, till 
you enter its gates of pearl. 

God has done all that infinite wisdom, power and goodness 



270 CONCLUSION. 

could do, to save you and every sinner of the human race. 
All this is implied in every invitation of the gospel. If the 
sinner will turn, he shall live. If he will not turn, neither 
omnipotence, nor super-omnipotence, nor any nor all special 
influences, forces and powers in the universe can save him. 
" Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth : 
for I am God, and there is none else." Isa. xlv. 22. "As I 
live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of 
the wicked : but that the wicked turn from his way and live : 
turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die ? " 
Ezek. xxxiii. 11. 



CONCLUSION. 



The result of this whole discussion may now be stated in a 
very small compass, and be contemplated at a single view. 

1st. These primary, fundamental and essential doctrines of 
Christianity have, for ages, been obscured, perverted, emas- 
culated, and often entirely divested of their natural and ap- 
propriate motive influence, in converting and saving sinners, 
and meliorating the condition of human society. This has 
been efiected by adding to them, mingling up with them, 
and endeavoring to illustrate them, by whole categories of 
unmeaning, inexplicable and incomprehensible fictions, w^hich. 
have no foundation, ground or existence, either in the nature 
or relations of things, created or uncreated, and which are, 
therefore, necessarily absolute falsehoods. 

2d. The only tendency of the motive influence of falsehood 
is to excite human agents to commit sin, incur guilt and in- 
crease misery. And these falsehoods have been so long ite- 
rated and reiterated, from the pulpit, the pen, the press, in 
creeds, in catechisms and symbols of faith, enforced by all 
the authority of imperial edicts, the decrees of general Coun- 
cils, Popes, Bishops, Synods and Assemblies of Divines, that 
they have given to the public sentiment of Christendom, that 
is, to the manner and habits of thinking, reasoning, Avilling 
and acting, of vast multitudes, even whole communities and 



CONCLUSIOX. 271 

nations, calling themselves Christians, a very strong and pre- 
dominating tendency to estimate things falsely, choose evil 
com'ses, and persist in the most sinful pursuits and habits. 

3d. But these inexplicable, incomprehensible and unmean- 
ing dogmas of mysticism, fiction and falsehood, have been 
invented, affirmed and taught, as being religious truths, fun- 
damental and essential doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
divine truths, revealed by God himself to the children of 
men, for their salvation ; and, therefore, to be believed and 
practically obeyed, on pain of everlasting punishment. Being 
thus taught and enforced, they are, of course, assented to by 
vast multitudes, as religious and divine truths, (though they 
have no conception at the time of any definite meaning to 
which they are assenting or professing to believe,) and, of 
course, these fictions bring into exercise, excite and con- 
trol all the religious endowments, susceptibilities, emotions 
and passions of their living, immortal souls. And the re- 
ligious susceptibilities of the living soul, being thus brought 
under the direction and control of the motive influences of 
falsehood, naturally and necessarily combine and concur with 
the depraved animal instincts, appetites and passions, in the 
pursuit, defence or justification of any interest, habit or prac- 
tice, however wrong, unjust, sinful and destructive. Thus 
all the endowments of the human agent, intellectual, moral 
and physical, combining his entire efficiency, through the 
motive influence of falsehood, may be engaged sincerely, con- 
scientiously and religiously, in the most vile, sinful and per- 
nicious enterprise or action, while the deluded sinner thinks 
he is doing right, rendering God service, and conferring bene- 
fits on his fellow creatures. 

4th. Such is the infatuation, or lunacy, which inspired the 
conspiracy, and now stimulates the suicidal rebellion and 
civil war against the government of this nation. Having, 
in the introduction, described the process by which such in- 
fatuation results, from assenting to unmeaning fictions and 
falsehoods as di\dne truth, we need not repeat it here. 

5th. No person, who wishes to know or is willing to know, 
can avoid knowing that the institution of chattel slavery, as 



272 coxcLUSiox. 

it exists ill the southern States, and is defended and jnstified 
by the inexplicable dogmas of nniversal jDredestination, and 
of the transfer of moral character and desert, by natural 
generation or divine imputation, is the sole proximate cause, 
the only political cause, the entire commercial or pecuniary 
cause, and the only municipal or social cause, of the present 
causeless, inexcusable, and foolish war ; and that no other 
interest, right, privilege or j)rerogative is questioned, or can 
be decided by the conflict. And every human agent, who 
has fairly begun to develop human nature, manhood, moral 
agency or accountability, knows intuitively and necessarily 
that there is a moral cause, antecedent to, or lying back of 
all these proximate causes, some motive influence, good or 
bad, truth or falsehood, some extensive, powerful and long- 
continued influence, so shaping and perverting public senti- 
ment as to render such infatuation, and such destructive, 
iiend-like conflicts, possible in Christian communities. If the 
public sentiment of Christendom was shaped by the pure 
motive influence of revealed truth, or if every Christian na- 
tion (so called) were truly evangelized, such conflicts would 
not be possible among Christian people. The true moral 
cause, or ultimate antecedent of the present war, is, there- 
fore, to be found only in those inexplicable and incomprehen- 
sible dogmas of mysticism, which we have endeavored to 
describe and repudiate in the preceding essays. The same 
is the true reason why the whole world has not been evan- 
gelized ages ago : and which still hinder, and must continue 
to hinder, the conversion of the world, till the gospel of 
Christ is entirely divested of such dogmas. For what greater 
progress can we hoj^e that the gospel of Christ will make, 
while these fictions, in which it is wrapt up, corrupted and 
perverted, are vastly more numerous than the simple propo- 
sitions necessary to teach the whole gospel of salvation, 
and infinitely complicated ? That it has made any progress 
at all, in converting sinners and saving the world for fourteen 
centuries, is perfect demonstration that it is divine, omnipo- 
tent and saving. Let the leaders, teachers and rulers of the 
Church, think on these thinofs. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-21 1 1 



o^^ 



